[open] don't let your wonder turn into closure

[Nashua]

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

It's difficult for a horse made for the sky to find a place to land in Taiga. The trees have always been to dense. As a youngster, Nashua had learned of a few places where the canopy opened up enough that a gangly, yearling pegasus could crash through. A few years have passed since then and Nashua has grown stockier and thicker.

Unfortunately for him, the spaces that he used to crash through have stayed the same while he has not.

Cursing quietly under his breath, the pegasus makes a sharp turn that uses a winter updraft to propel him further above the northern forest. He soars for a time, searching for a clearing to use as a landing. Nash uses up most of the winter's limited daylight by traveling to the northwestern part of Taiga - where the Pangeans had scorched a few trees -  when he is finally able to come down from the clouds. Nashua ruffles his wings in an attempt to shake the winter chill and salt brine from his feathers. Drawing them back in, the flaxen-haired pegasus moves away from the meadow he'd landed in and trots off down a trail that he's known since foalhood.

Hersir of the Isle, Nashua thinks with such a warm flare of pride that it keeps him warm despite the frost in the air. The former Taigan can hardly believe that Leilan would bestow such a title or responsibility upon him but the Dragon King had. He had taken up his duties immediately, eager to show his mentor that he was worthy of the weight that Leilan had placed on his winged shoulders. But those duties keep him away from Taiga longer than he'd planned (or wished) for.

The thought of Noel and their new arrival makes him anxious to find the pale pegasus that he had left beneath the Redwoods a few moons before (the Isle is no place for an expecting mare). His green eyes search through the winter shadows for a glimpse of his flame-marked mother or glowing Yanhua. Others call the Redwoods home, too (the shadow-dwellers, a mare that Yan had mentioned named Borderline). He weaves through the trees, crunching steps that echo through the frozen forest while his golden stripes catch and gleam on the stray strands of sunlight that break through the barren branches above him.

Nashua is so intent on finding anybody that he doesn't notice that the dark wings on his back have vanished.

NASHUA

html by castlegraphics; art by MirrorLands

open to any!