Polished blue keratin hooves traveled over a cobblestone road dusted in the soft flakes of snow. Though spring had come, Mraz did not reflect the blooming flowers or warm winds of the lands more susceptible to the seasons; no, instead it remained winter almost year round, a cold, biting, yet somehow heartwarming season of freezing temperatures and awe-striking weather. Mraz was a strange land, Caelian had found as he climbed up a small hill, his eyes trailing the base of the distant Mrazian mountain up to its peak. Not strange in its weather, since he was used to this sort of cold, but in its people. Unlike much of Ambrosius, all those centuries ago, the people of Mraz did not let the cold turn their hearts bitter, but instead embraced it and helped warm each other up. They seemed to band together as if their friendship could melt the ice from their windows and keep the snow from drifting through their doors. And that wasn’t to say Ambrosius wasn’t heartwarming in ways, but Caelian found Mraz to be a much more joyous, welcoming place than Ambrosius had been.

And maybe it was that way because of what Caelian had been. His ear flicked at the thought, and the trot he was traveling at quickened, allowing each clip of his hoof on cobblestone to come sooner than the last. He seemed as if he was running away from the memory. But as he thought back to his younger days, he was quite a friendly, if a bit quiet, individual before his downfall. He was highly different from the distant Araknes, who although was kind in her own way, seemed numb and distant from emotion. She had helped him find his way in this new land, and had even welcomed him into her herd. Still, there was this feeling as if she wore a veil and her black eyes wouldn’t share a word.

It was intriguing to the dappled stallion.

Caelian turned a corner to follow the road deeper into the rustic town of the Mrazian herd. Hearthstone was as warming and cozy as the name sounded, and Caelian still wasn’t sure how he felt about it. As he passed an unfamiliar face which smiled happily in his direction, he couldn’t but give a weak smile in return. He wasn’t used to the friendliness and caring of everyone else, and honestly didn’t know if he ever would. He had closed his emotions off for so long, shutting himself down and freezing himself over, that he wasn’t sure how to bring that kind of liveliness and joy back into his life all by himself as these horses did.

A tang of sadness played at his heart when he thought of who could bring that bubbling happy feeling back to him. It had been nearly six months since his separation from Nivea, and he had lost all hope of seeing her again. She had been able to make him joyous, allow him to smile and even play and tease. She had brought that child-like wonder out of him that he couldn’t find within himself. A sad smile crossed his face at the thought of her.

Light after light, sign after sign, and door after door passed by him as he travelled through Mraz until his eyes snagged on a familiar sight. The door of the library was open, and a pair of horses walked out with a smile on their faces and a book in their telekinetic grasp. The library had been his escape as of late, as he found the comfort of books to be his getaway from what he couldn’t handle or control. It was an old habit to find refuge in books, but a good one nonetheless. It was almost self conscious when his feet suddenly brought him to the library door and he walked inside.

The smell of books was so refreshing, and within no time at all, he found himself a nice corner in the small library on a soft pillow, his face shoved in a book on botany. At least he was living up to the title of being a scholar of Mraz.


[ tags ] @Mysa
[ words ] 695
[ ooc ] hmm trash writing :3