of the distant mountains; any

[roan]

How many years I know I'll bear
I found something in the woods somewhere

Winter digs her claws deep into the belly of the Tundra and rips away the last frail threads of warmth that tried to linger there.

Roan’s fur is thick and insulation enough against the cold so she doesn’t feel it. Snow falls on her back, sticks to her mane and melts in small cold kisses against her face. She doesn’t mind though because she is used to it. The Tundra was more her mother than anything else and one of its kings was her father. It was only natural that she was comfortable roaming the icy isolated reaches of the Tundra when not spending her time in her gray stallion’s company as Brynmor was often away now on travels to other kingdoms to do whatever it is he does, and she does not begrudge him his diplomatic duties as she keeps to the cold reaches of their home, content to spend most of her time alone.

But for the first time in her life - Roan is a little bit lonely.

The snow is not company enough for her even though she revels in the fall of it against her upturned face.

The vast quiet of the Tundra is far too quiet for her for once, becoming eerie rather than preferred.

She does not willingly seek out companionship and keeps her distance from the other stallions though they could easily smell Brynmor all over her and would know that she belongs to him. The bay roan is not sure why this sudden reluctance to sojourn forth and make friends; she can smell an influx of other mares and knows that she is not the only one there of the more delicate sex but she hesitates to seek them out. Her eyes can pick nothing out of the landscape because she doesn’t see it - it is all milk and shadows to her, and clouded swirls of blindness in her eyes that leave them almost blue-white like sheaves of ice against the snow. Still she would welcome company this day but does not know how to ask for it because she has always been content with just herself and the emptiness of the Tundra but in the wake of war, it seems more haunting than comforting these days.

Or maybe that is just because she doesn’t spend so much time at her stallion’s side because he is away on Tundra business a lot.

Roan