She has grown more vigilant with each passing day. Every season brings a new challenger, a new threat to her way of life. Kohelet does not know from where they come, although the presence of the spotted blue girl was proof enough that something had happened. Even if Fell had been inclined to share his woes with her, he had no words to give her.

And so Kohelet was more careful. She did not stray as far from the herd as she once had, and did not allow herself to be alone, no matter how much her heart craved a solo trip into the mountains to visit the place she had last seen her mother. She kept Una and Khoshekh close to her, and thereby close to everyone else so that they could not attempt to get to her (or Fell) through them. The tobiano knew she must have made herself a nuisance around the herd, drifting from one individual to the next and herding them together. It was always under the guise of Tinuvel's cold winter and the need for body heat, but she suspected they saw through her anxious smiles.

She was pacing at the edge of the herd now, too uncomfortable to sleep. The child she carried was growing large enough to do somersaults, and the constant motion had her stomach churning uneasily in the quiet night. Kohelet did her best not to wake the herd as she paced, her soft breaths coming out in silent plumes of white crystals that unfurled against the inky darkness.

She froze when she heard the breaking of a stick. It was just sharp enough to register over the rhythmic crunching of her own hooves over the hard-packed snow, and her face oriented toward it warily, eyes wide. In the wake of Isiksiz's attempted raid, the painted mare had grown more confident, but also more wary. She refused to make herself an easy target ever again. Even when the others had come from her, to single her out against the colorful chaos of Fell's herd, she had done her best to make it hard for them.

Even so, she crept closer.

The odds of a challenger coming into the Bay in the middle of the night, without calling out a challenge, seemed slim to her. The odds of it being a lost child or a wanderer or someone she knew was higher, especially considering Fell had already turned away the red-spotted mare at the turn of the season.

She came across the wounded mare quickly, and after a silent second of appraisal, offered a warm, quiet nicker of greeting. The poor creature's coat was still wet, although with the chill of the night it probably wouldn't be long before it started to freeze around her. It wasn't until she got closer that she realized the extent of the mare's injuries, and her face grew tense with worry. What had happened to her?

"Hello," she murmured softly, edging close enough to speak to the other mare. "Are you okay?" Her gaze swept over the mare again and her lips tightened into a thin, worried line. She wanted to sidle alongside the other mare to offer her own downy coat and body heat, but doing so without asking felt too forward. "No," She answered herself with a dismissive shake of her head. "Of course you aren't alright. You look like you've had a rough night." And then, channeling a bit of her own mother, "come here, I'll help you warm up while you tell me what happened."