Winter had faded to spring, and Ivanna had watched with bated breath as the snow melted and the prairie grasses grew. She delighted in running across the rolling hills of her new home, even though she had not made much time for meeting the other residents. The thought of having to introduce herself over and over again beyond just the small pleasantries shared when they all came together for warmth was daunting and she shied away from it.

In truth, her thoughts often wandered back to those first few months she had spent on the Isles and she wondered where each of them had ended up. She had tried to find Verrat before, many months ago, but the colt had refused to come to her call in the Peak and she'd abandoned her quest before it had even gotten off the ground. For a long time she had blamed him for the defeated way she felt when she'd entered the Commons, but as the months passed and her happiness grew, she knew it was unfair.

After all, he might not have heard her, or maybe was no longer even there. The longer she thought of the latter, the more it made sense. Even though the rumors had said that he was a prisoner of the Peak, she knew he would not have been happy there. Verrat was kind and gentle, but he was no mare. And a long time had passed. There was a good chance he had gone back to the Lagoon with the other bachelor stallions.

Walking across the border to the Lagoon made her skin twitch uncomfortably, if only because of the stories she'd overheard during her long months on the Crossing. It helped that fall was a long way off and she knew that she could not be forced to bear anyone a child at the moment. The support of Shamwari also made her feel more secure, even if she hadn't told him where she was going.
She was afraid he would stop her, but she felt like this was something she should do. If Verrat was in some sort of trouble, she should definitely try to help him, or maybe even invite him back to the Prairie with her. Then she would have a friend and a new family.

And perhaps foolishly, Ivanna had equated Shamwari's goodness as a reason to believe that most horses were truly good. That her doubt in them before was borne of her fear and anxiety, rather than any darkness on their part. Likely she had just allowed the stories of the Lagoon's villany to grow in her mind. They certainly couldn't be as bad as others said.

Anxiously the small mare trotted across the damp soil until she found an open-ish spot and stilled her progress to call out for Verrat, her voice high and uncertain in the air. She could smell that multiple stallions had crisscrossed across the land, but one smell was certainly more pervasive than most and she was nervous that it would be this stallion that found her first, before Verrat did. Would he be kind to her like Verrat had?

Ivanna