the firestarters always get the burns
and the good guys never get the girl
The whiteness of the forest made it easy to hide in for Ilma - enough that she escaped to it more often, to get away from her troubling thoughts at home. The river was her usual go-to, honestly, but nowadays even that was thick enough with memories that she didn't feel like going there.
Perhaps she should be anywhere else but here - Nerine, to ask Breckin what the Leviathans thought of Loess; Ischia, to talk to Brennen instead of Belgaer this time and see what was left of their alliance, if the brothers would be willing to help train Hyaline foals; Sylva, now that it seemed to have a new leader; Tephra, to see what their new leader was up to; Loess even, though the latter relationship was ultra-fragile - she still had never met their leader Wolfbane.
She did none of those things today. Today she hid from the politics. Today she hid from the world. And whenever a warning growl came from one of the forest animals, she attracted more of the daylight to reinforce her wings and simultaneously light up the place where she walked - telling whatever the predator was, that she saw them coming, would blind them, would put up a fight.
Seemed enough for now. She was a well-fed mare even in winter, knowing where to graze in Hyaline and more importantly, being able to get to higher places than other horses could by using her wings. She was no easy prey.
The sound of ice cracking attracted her to a stallion a little further away. She presumed he had less means to food sources than she, but only because now, near the end of winter, he was showing a little bone. Looked haunted, but perhaps that was just because of the wound on his shoulder.
She stopped a while away, watching him a moment. Then, she approached. Making no effort to hide her hoof-sounds on the forest floor, she hoped this would alert him to her presence long before she greeted him. "Good day. I hope you're not having too much trouble this winter?" she started with, looking him over. Some trouble, obviously. But not enough to kill him either. Unless he had trouble with politics too, but he did not smell of kingdoms honestly.
@[Aten]