As soon as Azalais stepped hoof on the pale sand of Tinuvel, she wanted nothing more than to turn around and go right back home. The land was a palette of cool greys and whites and stormy blues, so unlike the fiery reds and burnt siennas of Salem. The air felt like ice against her skin despite the sun that cascaded down on them from the clear sky, her desert-born body unused to the climate. And to think it was only autumn - how much colder could this place get?!

Then Azalais lifted her eyes to Tinuvel's crown jewel. Up, up, up to its rocky peak shrouded in cloud and snow. The rolling hills of her home and the great canyons of the Badlands had nothing on the mountain that dominated Tinuvel's horizon. The speckled princess wondered how many have attempted to summit that mountain, and how many had perished in the pursuit of greater heights - literally. She imagined being at the top of that peak looking down in a bird's-eye view of the snow-covered island, and the mental image was enough to make her stomach roll. It'd be better not to test the fates and stay firmly on even ground. Preferably even ground that didn't have Fell anywhere nearby.

'Daddy, you're home!' a shrill voice rang out soon after they emerged from the frigid sea. Azalais turned her gaze towards the source of the noise, a young black-and-white filly barreling eagerly towards them - or rather, Fell. The arrival of the girl only increased Azalais' annoyance, loosening her tongue and sending harsh words flying at her captor.

'My daddy is the smartest in the whole wide world,' the girl quipped. The laugh that left Azalais' mouth was dry and mirthless, her usually sunny features twisted into a scowl as she retorted sourly, "If you think that then you must not be very smart either." Frankly she found herself uncaring as to whether she hurt the girl's feelings or angered Fell. Let them be hurt, she thought, her ire towards her imprisonment and the stallion responsible for it only growing by the minute. "And I'm here because he took me from my home and forced me to come here. You'll learn someday when you're old enough and someone comes to take you away."

The look she shot at Fell then could only be described as acidic, but she said nothing more as she turned and finished her retreat back into the woods, wanting nothing more than to forget that he existed.

two • filly • mixed • blue roan leopard
hills princess • played by pippa • art by kiwi