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The wind tugged at his short tail, sending it flying wildly against his haunches. Suddenly the wind shifted, swinging round as if attempting to blow him off the narrow pathway he clung to. The track was little more than a goat path that headed almost vertically up the mountain side.

Blue body tensed, muscles bunched as he swayed precariously, hoof tips desperately clinging onto the tiny shelf of rock that was all that existed between him and the jagged rocks some leagues below. The wind shifted again, blowing once more into the rock face. Gingerly he continued upwards, lean body pressed tight into the sheer cliff face he was climbing, legs straining with the effort of keeping his footing.

Lifting his head for a moment he looked upwards, at the bluff above him that was his destination. There.. that was the turning point. if he made it past that outcrop, he would make the summit. Pressing his ears back, he again focused on the pathway ahead of him. Slowly, painfully, he inched his way upwards.

There was a moment when he swayed out over the drop, body forced to bend around the bluff that stood in his way, but with a grunt and a heave, he pulled himself past and staggered into the lee of the rocky outcrop and onto firm, solid ground. Trembling and breathing hard he stood for a second, gathering himself, then lifted his head.

Spread out before him was the most spectacular view. The soquili lands stretched away in a carpet of greens and blues. A two-legger settlement was a smudge in the distance, and beyond that, the wide open land of the wilderness.

Turning he bounded up the last small rise and stood at the very top of the mountain, the wind streamed past him dragging his mane and tail out like short blue banners. It tugged at his coat, rippling his fur as if the goddess herself had reached down and caressed his sweaty blue hide. Looking down he smiled, watching the thin streams of cloud gather round the mountain below where he stood.

Up here, he was supremely alone, with only the wind in his coat and the sunlight warming the rock at his hooves.

Or maybe he wasn't as alone as he had thought. A tiny speck shot out of the cloud cover off to his side, twisting and turning as if following some unseen path in the howling winds. His heart jumped as the figure dipped then corrected itself. Who or what is crazy enough to be out there in this wind? He wondered, amazed as he watched the figures crazy acrobatics.

The longer he stood there, the more desperate he became to join that figure. His coat rippled with the sheer need that pressed down on him, muscles jumping with each twisting move and powerful beat of the wings. Suddenly the figure angled and dived directly towards him. Grey eyes widened as he stood rooted, lost to the spectacle of pure power and wildness that the figure transcribed in the sky as it plummeted with perfect precision.

Suddenly he could make out every little detail, the striped feathers straining to control the creature's decent, the white-tipped mane and tail that streamed back as it reluctant to leave the sky's embrace. A mare.. it was a soquili!

Then she was gone, the blast of air disturbed by her speed washed over him just befor he heard the thud of hooves hitting rock. She had landed and was right below him! He found that he was trembling, and not from his long climb and the freezing winds that whipped against his coat. But from catching that brief glimpse of one who was so pure. The true embodiment of everything he believed in. Pure freedom.

His coat prickled with excitement, his trembling stemmed from eagerness. Forcing himself to take a breath he shook himself down. Carefully he picked his way to the edge of the small outcrop he had climbed, looking down over the edge to the larger open space the mare had chosen as her landing pad. The wind reversed, whistling up from behind him, sending his mane streaming forwards, for even its punkish attitude could not defeat Mother Nature.

"Greetings." He called above the wind, ears pricked. His sapphire coat shone in the cloudless sunlight, unmissable against the paler blue of the sky above.

Something wondrous washed through him at the sound of her voice. As if the wind had reached down and caressed him for a brief instant. Smiling back at her favourable reaction to his greeting he stepped back, then leapt forwards over the edge of the escarpment he had stood upon. All four hooves hitting the steep side he skidded down in a shower of stone chips, almost sitting back on his haunches to keep from tumbling head first, before leaping off just feet from the bottom.

Trotting a few passes he shook his mane before drawing to a halt in front of her. The wind whipped at his short tail, tugging at his coat and tangling his dusty feathers round his hooves. He smiled at her question, grey eyes mirroring the wind-tossed clouds that clung to the skirt of the mountain. "The wilderness of this place.." He replied, turning his head to sweep his gaze over the view, the hazy horizon in the distance calling its sweet siren’s song to his heart, the sharp jagged peaks nearer them that sent out a silent challenge.

Drawing his gaze back to the mare he found himself struck by her beauty, the wildness that clung to her. She seemed more a part of the mountains, a spirit born of the wild winter storms, than a soquili. She belonged out here, in the vast space above the reaching fingers of the earth. He felt as if he was meeting the embodiment of the wind. And perhaps he was.

"And you, are you the North Wind come to claim me for my impertinence?" He smiled, warm and playful. The pure joy of life lit his eyes, coupled with a reverence for nature's savage beauty among which they stood, temporarily still.

The sway of her mane drew his gaze, the silken strands mirroring the brush of the winds against his coat, as if they were all connected by the spirit of the wind. One being split into its many parts, forever separate yet always connected. A breath, a heart beat..

Her voice drew him back, grey eyes flicking to meet the mare's stunning amber gaze, like that of the last rays of the dying sun before Night claimed the skies. He watched as she moved forwards, half expecting her to dissolve into the very winds that swirled around them. To actually be that which he playfully named her.

His sapphire coat rippled in the wind, mirroring the action of his muscles as he shifted slightly, head tilting under her gaze. The stallion stood tall and proud, unrepentant even in the face of the Wind Spirit herself. Proud in his feat, refusing to be chained back by the form the spirits had seen fit to gift him with.

"That may be the path I have chosen." He replied with a smile. "I can be no other than what I am." Lifting his head he gazed upwards, the wide open sky beckoned. The wind rushed up from the valley below, streaming over his body as if urging him on. Grabbing at his mane and tail violently. The need to race that wind rose from deep within him. Urging him onwards, higher, faster, harder. And yet he stood at the tip of the mountain. Need trembled through him, that which he could never possess, the very wind itself, taunting the earth-bound stallion.

A wide grin touched his muzzle, excitement at the challenge sent by nature herself burned fierce and true in his silver gaze as he dropped his head. Looking back at the mare before him who represented everything his body, his soul, desired, he smiled warmly.

He watched her, fascinated by the play of the of the wind through her soft fur and graceful wings. He wanted to touch her, the desire to make sure she was real, and not truly the spirit of the wind come to tease him. The need to know was so strong it was like an ache deep in his bones.

He nodded slowly to her words, ears pricked forwards. "That is true.. I have no one who ties me down to one spot, human or soquili. Though I can not honestly say I am not enslaved by my own desires. But my spirit and my heart sing the same song. " He studied her, more than a little surprised when she stepped so close. He had to resist the urge to close that last little gap, and yet she held him rooted to the spot, as if he couldn't have moved even if he had tried to.

Her hot breath sent shivers through his body, leaving his skin tingling. He met her amber gaze unflinchingly, wingless body held still, yet confident in his own power. He revelled in the life he had been given and would not be apologetic for how he lived it. "True." He agreed, voice steady yet soft. "The freedom, the pure spirit that is found here." He gazed back at her, feeling as if his very existence was being laid bare and examined by the Goddess herself. To be judged perhaps, was he worthy of the live he had been given?

Her words sung through him like the wind through his coat, burying themselves deep within his mind. He doubted he would ever meet her again, so he wanted to remember everything about that moment, the all too fleeting moment when the wind spoke to him at the top of the mountain.

He bounded forwards as she leapt high, head tossing back to follow her as she balanced gracefully atop the rocky outcrop, poised like an angel, her glorious wings spread wide as if allowing him a glimpse of what true freedom really was.

He listened to her voice, ears pricked forwards and straining for every drop of her voice. He knew that if she but asked it of him, he would willingly leap from the mountain on which they stood. Even though it would be certain death. For he was enraptured by her, possessed by the sweet voice of the wind and the thrilling beauty of the spirit before him.

He studied her as she gazed down at him, drawing on her words, letting them roll through him. "To be free truly free is a gift, yet I believe that it is a state any of us can obtain. Even without wings, that is the way I seek to live. Though I would be lying if I said that I don't long to take to the skies, to see everything in a new way, to race the wind itself to the very heavens."

He couldn't help the trace of longing in his voice. He didn't have wing-envy, he simply longed to be able to do the one thing he would forever be kept from. All other challenges he had so far experienced, he had conquered yet one existed, and would always exist to taunt him.

The shock of that electric connection made his coat stand on end, ears pricked forwards as he stood statue-still as if he had become part of the mountain under his hooves, trapped in the sheer power of the mare's eyes.

They were oppersists, he like the immovable mountain he stood on, hard od body and strong of limb. She was the air, light as a feather and just as impossible to pin in place.

As she lept skywards, her words rang through his mind, forever caught within. He followed the shape of the female until she was simply a dot in the blue above, then she was gone. Letting out a shuddering breath he dropped his head, spotting the feather that shifted against his hoof, he dipped and grabbed it in his teeth.