[open] but you never had a chance at all

[Areane]

At nearly a year old, Areane considers herself nearly grown.

Really, she should think about fledging soon. Loess is home, and always would be, but she was curious about the world outside their borders. Was it large? Were there canyons and ravines cracking the rest of the world, as it did in the Southern Kingdom? She had heard enough - not much - from strangers about places where the snow (something she has never seen for more than a day) lasts year-round. There is a volcano - something else she has never seen - in a kingdom towards the West.

There is much to learn, and much to their world, and something in the young pegasus chafes at being confined to Loess. It was only temporary, her father Tarian had explained, until it was decided what they would do as a family. As acting Champion, he felt compelled by oaths and promises made to the rulers that came before and her father had said that simply leaving was not a choice. Not until the kingdom was either returned to one of its previous leaders or Tarian was assured that the new one taking their place was worthy of a throne that had once belonged to Queens like Lepis and Oceane.

(Her father had lost his throne long ago, and Tarian was devout in his own way. He wouldn't go against what the Winds had decreed and take another.)

Making sure that she has plenty of daylight left (she has already learned the consequences of what can happen if she stays too long in the dark), the young pegasus canters through the open fields and even manages to take-off a few times. She soars for short spans and relishes in the feeling at the ground giving way with each leap. Areane goes and goes, until she reaches the edges of the Forest. It looks deep, and the shadows seem somewhat daunting when spending too long in them could make her sick.

But the Wind blows past her, the only encouragement that she needs, and its whispers in her dark ears tell her that someone might be coming (it doesn't occur to her that it is trying to tell her something else, that is trying to give her a warning that her future might be changing, that her home is about to be lost).

"Hello?" the yearling calls out, searching for the source.