Falls

It had been a few hours since the towering mare arrived on the islands. She had arrived here by chance, washed away in a storm and carried by the waves for a day before the sea changed its mind and spat her back out on the white sand of the Crossing. She had no idea how to get back to mainland, but the white-gold warmblood had left nothing of personal value there and so was not in much of a hurry to get back. Her nature was curious, when she wasn’t being stoic, and there was no one to impress on the barren shore except the driftwood log she had washed up next to.

Curiosities aside, Relke had been treading in seawater for nearly 24 hours and was terribly dehydrated. She followed the paths worn into the dirt by so many hooves, wondering who the tracks had all belonged to. She could hear running water, faintly, and was lucky to find that the path she was on curved toward the source: a stony staircase of a cliff, down which clear water tumbled into a small pool. Relke hastened toward the waterfall, but paused as another mare slipped into the spring at the base of the falls. Relke thought she looked similar to herself in the abundance of feathers that swathed each of their hooves, and the volume of mane and tail that cascaded down their pale bodies, though the amber mare was smaller, more slender. Relke tilted her head at the other as she approached slowly, not wanting to alarm or interrupt, but very much wanting a drink of the crystalline water that no doubt ran from the melting snow atop the peak looming over them.

”Hello,” she greeted as her white feathers touched the grass at the very edge of the pool, nearly spilling over. Her mane, jet black, was long enough that it almost brushed the surface of the glittering water. She thought the other mare had the right idea, stepping right in; the salt on her skin from her dip in the ocean was itchy, and made her fur coarse and bedraggled. ”I don’t mean to be rude. Do you mind if I join you? I’ve just come from the mainland, and I’m covered in salt from the swim.” She tried to hide how desperate she was for a sip of the fresh water, but supposed she would be found out one way or another when she eventually got the chance to dip her muzzle in and drink for as long as she could hold a breath.