It wasn’t as if leaving her mother had been easy, especially after life that’d once been happy became somewhat somber. But Tiare had known she had to do it; she had to live her own life. There was absolutely no way her mother was ever going to stop trailing her father and in some ways Tiare thought it was very sweet, but in other ways she thought it was a little sad. So despite going back-and-forth privately over the decision, back in spring she’d said goodbye to her dam and went her own way to explore Atlantis and beyond.
By autumn she’d managed to make her way around Salem, a bit of the Crossing, and Luthien as well. The only island she hadn’t fully explored was Tinuvel. Tiare hesitated on the northern shoreline of Crossing Isle, glancing across the channel at the distant looming shape of the island she had yet to swim to. Her wide, heavy hooves made soft grooves in the wet sand with how she shifted her weight, brown tail flicking indecisively at her hind.
It wasn’t that she was afraid, only that she’d heard other islanders say Tinuvel could be an unforgiving island from mid-autumn clear through the winter. She had been born on Atlantis and though she’d seen snow, from what she’d been told, she’d never experienced it the way it fell on the northern-most island. But if she didn’t go now, when would she? She was thickly built and packed with hair, though it wasn’t completely grown in since she hadn’t been spending much time on the colder islands. Surely she could stand at least a week of autumn there exploring, right? Maybe if the weather grew too cold or the storms seemed too troublesome, Tiare could come back to Crossing and resolve to resume her trip come spring.
Tiare nodded to herself, deciding her reasoning sounded fair, and began to walk forward to make for the ocean. Her steps picked up, feathers sloshing in the waters as she rushed her weight into the surf with an almost reckless joy. She never grew weary of the swims from island to island, always encouraged by imagining whatever wonderful new things she was going to see where she next went. Every stroke of her thick, muscled legs was accompanied by a daydream of pretty flurries of early snow and creatures she’d never before seen, and it helped her carry on, cutting her heavy-built figure through the water with surprising agility.
The weather was actually rather nice by the time she pulled herself out of the waters and onto Tinuvel, though she wasn’t sure exactly where on the island she was. Still, a glance toward the horizon told her the sun would soon be setting, and the air was growing steadily chillier, which didn’t bode well for her coat still wet from the sea. Tiare shivered and shook herself out as best she could, a soft mist of water flying off her creamy pale brown coat before she started inland. It’d be best to find some sort of cave or even a grove of trees that could block the windchill while she dried overnight. While she could travel in the dark, she’d rather not take the risk through lands she was unfamiliar with.
As she reached further inland and the forests started, the sky grew darker even quicker than she anticipated. A glance upward through the trees showed her thick clouds rolling in over the early-evening sky, and a soft rumble of thunder told her they were unlikely to simply pass by without offering some rain. If she was lucky, that’s all it would be.
Tiare shivered again and started walking quicker, breaths huffing with exertion by the time she’d pulled herself up a steep incline and managed to find a spot where rocks had been weathered away to make a shallow cave plenty deep enough for her to walk into. Her breaths sounded louder than they were, enclosed by the nearby walls, but Tiare was able to drop her muzzle to the ground and walk around in a tight circle, sniffing and not sensing any recent creatures having taken shelter here. It was wide enough that another horse could comfortably reside in here, and having realized that, Tiare briefly wished there was someone here. As much as she loved exploring she did miss having company. Too, with their combined body heat, she would’ve been warmed through before long. Instead she was left still a bit chilled. She backed her haunches up to the end of the cave and pointed her front at the wide opening a few strides ahead, flicking her ears forward as the first torrent of downpouring rain came heavily down across the forest.
“Sure hope no one is stuck out in that,” she murmured quietly to herself, amazed at how quickly it was coming down and grateful she’d managed to find the spot she had.
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