When the stranger tells Ylva that they are not as alone as they seem, her heart lifts with hope. Yet something in the stranger’s tone suggests that this information is not necessarily a good thing, and the hope in Ylva’s chest is buffeted by waves of anxiety. Before she can enquire as to whom else is here in this bleak, dark land, however, her companion asks about her past. Her throat tightens, and she presses her lips together as images of her family flash through her head.
“Some place far from here, with trees as far as the eye can see,” she replies.
She averts her gaze and stares off at the frozen mountains in the distance, wondering if she will ever have the courage to return to that faraway place. Part of her wants to seize the opportunity to describe it in detail, to tell this stranger all about where she had come from, in the feeble hope that perhaps she had heard of it, but the pain is still too raw, too real, and Ylva can feel her emotions threatening to bubble over again the moment she says any more about it. She does not want to cry again - if she even can - and so she says nothing more.
She is grateful for the change of topic when Solaris introduces herself and sheds a little light on this place. Ylva’s lips part as she takes in this information. She does not know what an ‘earl’ is, but she senses it is a title of some sort, which tells her that she has walked into some sort of hierarchical system. Hierarchies can be fluid and ever-changing, as they had been in her herd; yet she knows they also can be stiff and fixed, and hostile to those who might disrupt them: such as strangers, like her.
Ylva sucks in a shallow breath and is about to speak when Solaris abruptly tells her to leave. The sudden change in the young mare’s tone frightens her. Leave? How could she leave now when she is still battered and broken from her journey here? Where would she go? “W-what?” she stammers, her voice as soft and wispy as the condensation steaming from her mouth. Tears fill her eyes. “Why?”
Yet even as she asks the question, she follows Solaris’s gaze and sees the answer, moving towards them purposefully through the dark. Dread sits like a stone in her stomach. She can already tell this will not be a pleasant interaction.
2; norwegian fjord; red dun pangare; 14hh
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