Inlet

That terrible blizzard had passed and somehow they were all unharmed. As Mizuki watched her daughter play with Talei and Stormy she couldn’t suppress the anxiety that was churning her stomach; the revelation that their life could change in a heartbeat. The little grey mare doesn’t want to waste the rest of her life away in a deep depression, not anymore. Nicodemus had awakened something in her. Perhaps the fire to live again? He had given her a second chance at life and he had given her many reasons to live. In the Inlet she could be who she wanted to be and not what someone else forced her to be. It was time to seize the moment and start making the most out of her life.

With one last look at her daughter, still blissfully frolicking with her siblings as if they hadn't been in danger, Mizuki turned and started walking towards the pine forest. For the first time since giving birth she would not have eyes on her little girl. She was only planning to be gone for a few hours, a night at most. She trusted that Nicodemus, Ashitaka and Raini would keep Ameyuki safe until she returned.

“Oka-san, where are you going?” Mizuki startles for a moment to the sound of her daughter's voice and turns to see that painted blue-grey figure following her. Ameyuki was nearly a year old now and yet she still stuck close to her mother like glue. And Mizuki could honestly say that she would feel more content knowing that her daughter was close by.

“I was looking for your grandmother,” Mizuki answered honestly with a soft smile.

“Grandmother?” Ameyuki repeats with a puzzled expression, “but you said your mother lived very far away?”

“Not my mother,” Mizuki almost laughed at the preposterous notion of ever seeing her mother again, “your other grandmother. Nicodemus’ mother. He told me she still lived here in the Inlet.”

“Oh,” the young filly chuckled at her own naivety as she came up to her mother’s side. “May I join you?” Mizuki nodded her head in response as the pair of them started walking together deeper into the forest. Their journey would be slow and arduous as they would need to plow through the several feet of snow that had been dumped on them by the storm. Occasionally Mizuki would look to Ameyuki to check how she was faring and was pleased to see she was coping well. She still couldn’t believe how much she had grown and soon she would be able to look over her mother’s head, not like that was a difficult task to achieve.

“Oka-san,” Amyuki eventually broke the easy silence between them, “Why do you want to see grandmother?”

“Well,” Mizuki started to answer the question carefully with a somber expression, “I wanted to check if she was OK after the storm. And I wanted to see her before…. Before…”

“Before you lose the chance to,” Ameyuki finished her mother's sentence with a gentle yet knowing smile.