In the darkness, with the hunting monsters, it proves difficult to make good time heading for the Field. It’s time. Time for a home, for shelter, something to belong to. She’s always just been her mother’s daughter, nothing more. Just the child of an over-protective gentle mother. It’s been four years of that – two of which she spent mostly in the Meadow hiding from the world. Well, seems silly now that her mother thought it was dangerous then when this is what everything has become. Swallowed in black. She’s a beacon shifting through the trees and over the hills, a dim glow lighting her scales, she doesn’t dare brighten it for fear she will become an immediate target. She can hear the agonizing screams that pierce the eerie quiet and echo across the world like its empty. The winter’s chill doesn’t seem to have passed like it should have and it remains cold, which Fen has never loved. The cold is all together undesirable, really. But there’s no time to dwell on that when you’re in actual constant danger and you can’t see much around you.

At least she has her glow to light her way. Moving across the rolling meadow, the dead grasses brushing her soft underbelly and her hair catching the branches of shrubbery as she passes through. She can smell that she’s arrived at the edge of the Field, a claiming grounds, her mother explained to her once. They come and find you, sometimes more than one and sometimes none at all – they want to take you to their home. Do not trust anyone, Fenwe. Not until they prove it. Her mother always told her. So there she is, a little glowing girl dressed in shiny scales and golden spots against her piebald base. Her hair long and thick, twirling elegantly at its ends as it bounces in a gentle breeze. She’s certainly easy to spot, even with her glow a bit dimmed. Like a little teal ghost standing at edge of the open plain.

She could hear him coming from afar and it confirmed the feeling she had minutes before – she knew she was being watched. It’s a relief though, to have it be four legs with hooves that comes padding her way and not some villainous horse-flesh craving monster. He smelled like warm earth and sea, and it felt like something bright hitting her senses – even among all the darkness.

Fen makes sure to swing her hips away and face him where he decides to settle, which is a respectable distance in her opinion. He doesn’t close in on her, but she can see the smooth lines of his silhouette lit with a faint teal light as her glow brightens. She looks him over first, tilting her pretty face to one side, “Hello Gale.” she puts her nose forward to sniff in his direction, “My name’s Fen.” she takes in a deep breath. “You live by the sea?” her voice is confident, but soft, rolling from her mouth as smoothly as a calm river current.

Fenwe tips her head to the opposite side while he talks, watching him daydream brings a faint smile to her glowing lips. His directions are as useful to her as a riddle – the answer is likely there, but she doesn’t have it. She doesn’t say so though. She leaves out that she hasn’t been very far even in the world of sunlight and seasonal shifts. And now that it is dark, dreary and seems to be ever-winter of sorts? Less far than before. So. Nowhere, basically.

“I have not.” she straightens her head, flicking her eyes to a distant roar. It was a chilling sound. Her gaze finds him again. The pale glossy blue of her eyes glowing a few shades brighter than the rest of her. “Are there monsters there?”

Maybe they have not reached the sea coast – or better yet, may it be an island they have not found. Protected – let it be protected, she prays to herself. “I don’t want to be alone anymore.” she blurts. Her voice isn’t pleading, though you would think with such a state that it would be. She doesn’t seem desperate, only matter of fact, as if she’s come to such a conclusion through cold research (which is exactly the case). Perhaps it is because of today’s dangers that she no longer finds it suitable to wander in solitude, or maybe its just time. Either way, she steps forward, closer to him, closer to being away from this field.

Her smile threatens to melt away when he states that they are indeed all over. There is no hope of a sanctum – the underworld has backed this world into a corner and there is nowhere to flee. Panic is always in the back of Fen’s mind, but she has an incredibly useful ability to keep it well at bay in most scenarios. Even in these extreme times.

Her tail slashes nervously, relieved a little to hear that there aren’t as many in his home. Fen’s head tips back to the side, ears opposite of one another, one bent and the other perked. “Ok.” her small voice lets softly into the dark air around them. She sighs under her breath, “Lead the way.” she readies herself to follow him home.