Hold My Hand, I'll Walk With You My Dear [Private]

Cadena's breath stung as she raced around a small clearing, pushing herself to keep going. Her legs were shaking with cold, and she could see the warm huffs of her breath in the air before her as she won. The frost crunched beneath her hooves as she ran, crackling as if it too protested her training at this ungodly hour and temperature. Finally, the mare slowed, her breath coming in short gasps as she cooled her body down. It took a few minutes to adjust to the normal rhythm of breathing and walking, after the near half hour of physical training she'd put in this morning.

If only it were a little colder. Then I could battle frostbite as well, the mare thought sarcastically, lashing her bound-up tail and snorting, letting her head drop. When she looked up, gazing at the landscape from behind curls of her forelock, she noticed another equine shape coming her way.
"What is it you need?" the mare said, shaking herself to push her mane out of her eyes.

Although she was broad, Cadena's pony blood meant that she was short, and she had to draw herself up to seem even comparable with Eden's height. She let her eyes rove over the stallion, taking in all the details she could gather. Since she wasn't a very outgoing mare, she rarely interacted with her herdmates, and she couldn't place the name of this horse. She remembered there being something odd about him, but she couldn't quite place it. Shrugging mentally, she decided that she could figure it out later. Right now, she wanted to find out what the healer mage had in mind.

As Cadena's quick inspection came to an end, it dawned upon her what was off about this stallion. Ah, yes, I've heard the other mares gossiping about him, she thought, remembering overheard snippets of conversation between some of the other Olde herd members. Many of the Olde horses disapproved of Eden and his rather...different...situation. They were an old herd, bound in tradition so tightly that it dragged them down, like rocks pinning them to the bottom of the ocean. Cadena, while just as religious as the next Olde horse (at least she was again; it hadn't always been so), preferred to hold judgement until she knew a horse's character. Besides, she was used to seeing the pursed-lipped stare and hearing murmurs for herself. While the Olde horses did fight occasionally, few of them were as visibly scarred as the small welsh cross. Her throat and sides had been ravaged by a Bachelor stallion during one of their infamous raids. That was, unfortunately, not all that had been ravaged either. So Cadena had grown accustomed to hearing horses whisper about how she should never have left the group, and that her mass of scars was her own doing.

Turning her thoughts away from the gossip of the Olde horses, Cadena focused her attention on Eden's request. So, he needed someone to go with him into the mountains? It would be a bother, but perhaps the mare could find some new opportunity to train for her gift there. As that was the largest singular goal in her life right now, she thought he opportunity would be a good one. Besides that, Cadena chastised herself for losing focus on her training due to Malkivan, the small pintaloosa stallion she had recently begun talking to. She needed to get away from him and back into training. The mountains would be a good way to achieve this goal.

"Yes," she replied, adding, "I am Cadena." She paused for a moment before speaking again. "Well then, Eden, if you're going to make it to the mountains and back before nightfall, we'd better get going," she said, turning and beginning to walk in the direction of the Ailin mountains. She didn't pause, but she was listening to see if the stallion followed.

Cadena's ear flicked back so she could listen to the stallion and make sure that he was keeping up with the quick pace she set for him. She could hear his hoofbeats pick up as he drew alongside her. Good; he wasn't going to be slowing her down that much, if at all. Perhaps this little trip wouldn't be such a nuisance after all. Besides that, Cadena was interested in learning more about the healer. She didn't trust what she'd heard from snippets of gossip; the truth always became obscured that way. At the same time, she wasn't going to go nosing in places that weren't her business; what she hated more than anything was a busybody.

"You as well," the chestnut mare responded, smiling the tiniest bit. This stallion was an enigma all right; he seemed to have a short fuse - she guessed from the expression and manner he had shown dashing through the frigidly cold weather to meet her - but he was being cordial to her, or at least trying his best.

She noticed Eden's expression change, as some past experience took over his thoughts. Cadena, while raised to be a perfect lady by her parents, had been deeply changed by her scarring run-in with the Bachelors, and her period of faithless abandon that came after. She was crass; she was competitive, and she was easily irritated. And, she did not want this journey to become long and awkward. So, with a wry smile, she replied. "Yeah. That could really Fairy up your day."

The mare nodded, recalling the basic features of Evalynn as she trotted along, one ear cocked to listen to Eden, the other swiveling to search out danger. When he came to the end of his tale, Cadena chuckled, shaking her head. "I'm not sure that's what we're supposed to be teaching," she said, smiling at the thought of poor Eden's misfortune with Evalynn's lessons. She wasn't so much laughing at the stallion as she was showing her amusement at his spunk.

Cadena tossed her head, flipping her forelock out of her eyes as she moved along. Her curly forelock was always flopping in her eyes, and she hated it. She grudgingly admitted that it was vain, but she liked her mane too much to lop it off. However, with its thick pony characteristic fluff, the body of it needed to be held back, especially because otherwise it would trip her up during training sessions.

She noticed Eden shaking himself out of thought, but decided against asking what was the matter. She didn't want to pry into the stallion's life on this journey. "A couple of times," the mare said, as she picked her way through a small rocky outcropping. "But mostly only to the base. I train there a little bit, but only from time to time," she added.

Cadena chuckled at the story, imagining how the filly might have used Eden's advice after stubbing her hoof. "Sometimes, there are only certain words that get the point across," the mare said, smirking at Eden as she roved along. This stallion had spunk, and she admired that.

She noticed that Eden was struggling - it wasn't something he could hide easily - and slowed slightly to allow the other horse to catch up. Perhaps she shouldn't have, for just as Eden was exclaiming that he might actually get out alive, he tripped, falling with a series of crunches, right next to the mare. Cadena started, skittering a step or two away before she regained her composure.

"Are you all right?" she asked, peering down at the flattened Eden. There were two things she noticed almost immediately. The first was that the fall had sounded bad. Which meant he may be too injured to continue...or go back. Even though he was a healer mage. And the second was that, with his body prone and facing upward, it was clear to see that 'he' had not originally started out that way. So, the rumors about the healer mage were true. Interesting.

Cadena wanted to ask Eden about this (after she found out whether he would live or die, of course), not out of spite but real curiosity. She wanted to know how he felt, how he managed, and how he endured the snide comments of his herdmates each day. But, she hated when others pried into her life, and she assumed that Eden felt the same. So, she decided that she would find out if he was all right, then she would act from there.