The snow is deep at the base of the mountain, and Rhadra trudges through it with dogged determination, lifting her knees high. She hasn’t traveled too far out of the shadow of the Peak, but she has ventured down from the heights and toward the Falls, thinking that perhaps it is the increased elevation that has made her feel so weary lately. Or, perhaps it is the sparse grazing. It was a difficult autumn for her and she hadn’t put on as much weight as she should’ve for the hard season ahead, and yet... she feels heavier. A little unbalanced. Different, but not in a way in which she’s familiar.
What better way to distract herself from her body’s complaints than with some exercise? Rhadra grunts, a long plume exhaling from her nose as she breaks a path for herself leading away from the Peak and into the Falls. She has explored a fair bit of the mountain range, though not nearly all of it, but it will be nice to take a break from the slopes and heights of her home and scrounge for grazing here in the common areas. And when she is done she may return home.
Home. The word warms her thoroughly, and she smiles. Working through the deep snow is difficult but she enjoys pushing herself, even though her feathers are clumped with ice and her legs burning from the exertion by the time she reaches a shallower path. There is evidence here of others, the snow packed beneath many hard hooves and scraped away to reveal where they’ve grazed, and Rhadra keeps to the side that looks less disturbed than the center of the packed snow. There she rests for a moment, staring across the uneven white landscape while she catches her breath, ears twitching at the distant sound of what she believes must be the ocean. The mare snorts as her belly reminds her of her mission, then turns her focus to pawing snow away from the earth to reveal what grazing remains. |