As another dreary day dawned in my endless prison, I yawned and stretched, bowing low to stretch my forelegs and then extending my back legs like a ballerina until all of the night's dreariness had left my bones. I hated winter, I had decided somewhere around the first week of winter last year, and my opinion of the season had not improved in the intervening months. Snow coated much of the Crossing from what little I could see from the edge areas of the Lagoon (never so far that I might summon the annoying brute that called himself Boss), which did not invite another escape attempt. Even the most southern reaches were chilly compared to the sweltering temperatures of the summer.

I longed for the hot, dry air of home. Of the feeling of a true breeze racing across the dunes and lifting my mane into a wild dance. I had never thought such a thing would be so true, given how eager I had been to leave it behind, but alas. I was, as they say, reaping my own rewards.

Once Garmr had successfully bullied me back here, much against my will, I had gone back into hiding for the remainder of the autumn season. There was still much I did not understand about the world, but even I knew enough to avoid the amorous advances of the stallions around me. It wasn't even that I believed them all irredeemable as Garmr had claimed, only that none of them had impressed me. I did not care that they belonged to the Lagoon - so much as I did care that they colluded in keeping me captive.

I was not meant to be a captive, and the title (and chains) were growing ever more abrasive on my skin.

Stretching finished, I shook myself off, loathing the thicker coat that I had grown to combat the cold. Unused to such temperatures, my body had overcompensated this year and I resembled one of the reeds that grew at the water's edge in the late season, where a single touch sent thousands of downy seeds into the wind. Only then did I peer around me with a soft, annoyed huff of breath, not expecting to find any one. The corner I'd chosen for myself was densely overgrown, and the footpaths in and out of the little near-thicket were narrow which (in theory) would dissuade most of the larger inhabitants from bothering me.

Although, even as that thought crossed my mind, the words literally not issued from my lips in the slightest, I couldn't help but feel like even thinking of the giant blonde Boss that had chased me to the Ruins was akin to summoning him.