Most of autumn was spent exercising up and down the myriad slopes of the Peak, exploring every little thing that caught her fancy, from tumbled boulders and the little caves created beneath their cool gray flanks to chasing the shadows of eagles soaring overhead. She likes it there, she finds. Every day she discovers something new, and nothing compares to the view of the ocean from such heights. When she is not rummaging around the mountainside, Reef daydreams on the beach, lolling in the cool sand until the frigid oceanspray sets her body to shivering, prompts her back to her feet and into motion to warm her blood.
Snow has settled over every curve of the Crossing like a well-loved coat. The air has a distinct bite from one dawn to the next, and all the water that refuses to slow down enough to freeze is frigid. There is nothing quite like stepping into the tide on a clear winter afternoon like this. Reef orients herself toward the setting sun, lost in thought, and swims.
Sometimes (most times), just the thought of Zevulun is enough to heat her up. Even now her skin flushes to think of the afternoon they spent together under the shade of the mountain. Reef had kept her resolve to keep away from him during the season of instincts, well aware her every word would only be yes punctuated by a thousand eager kisses. He makes her feel giddy as a filly. She smiles at the memory: she had been unprepared to meet him at the Peak, a place she understood to be populated only by women— not that she minded! It had been a heady day. Reef liked to think Zevulun had come specifically to visit her, and even if that had not been the case he certainly made a point of proving to her (more than once) how agreeable he found her company.
Blinded by the sun (and a certain snow-white stallion), Reef's hooves hit shore far more quickly than she can believe and, stumbling, she pulls herself out of the water to find herself on a foreign shore. Reef remembers best the wind from when she was last here —also in winter— and it cuts just as sharply through the water on her coat now as it did last year. She shakes herself out before the wet can freeze too close to her skin and looks around, giving a start as she realizes that only a few feet away stands a pale, willowy mare.
"Oh! Hello," she calls, turning and ambling toward her. Everything is at an amble these days, except for the foal kicking inside her. That one seems to be practicing how to run. "I didn't see you on my way in— I didn't splash you, did I? Not very focused this evening, I'm afraid," she adds, flicking her knotted forelock out of her face before glancing at the sky bleeding at Parvati's back. Most horses would admire the sunset on a different beach, where they could see the sun sink into the water. This one seems determined to ignore the fading light entirely, which Reef can appreciate. Her gaze shifts to the ocean, her truest love, and she can't help but smile to see the sun shattered into a thousand shards on its surface. She confides in a quiet voice to her new companion, "It's beautiful, isn't it? Even all busted up, it still gleams." |