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Selda's heart pounded within her breast as she tiptoed from tree to tree, peering about nervously. As always, her ears were pricked, listening, always alert to the whispers that may suddenly become audible and hint at which direction she should be headed. She was alone, she wasn't supposed to be, she had always felt that, but whoever should have been there from the beginning was not. So, since the cold night she had fought her way free of the deep drift that had carried her away from the person she was supposed to be with, she had been looking. In the short time she'd walked this earth she had observed others, she had kept to the clinging shadows and watched them. She knew 'mother' and 'father' she knew 'family,' but none of those words were quite right to describe what was missing. It was if a part of her had broken off in the fall and gotten lost. She was not whole without it, she felt sure her missing piece was still alive, she felt the echoes of its' being as she walked, but she couldn't follow them to the source. "Where are you?" she murmured sadly. The night before she had learned the concept of 'danger'. When a giant soquili that smelled of festering meat and old blood had found her, hunkered down for the night in a shivering ball, and chased her until she'd fallen into a stream that had seemed to come out of nowhere in the darkness and swept her away into this unfamiliar terrain. Now she knew there were things in the darkness that could snatch you up and tear you away from the familiar. Her lip trembled and her tiny wings fluttered with distress. The darkness not only hid the dangerous things, it made the shadows go away. Her beautiful shadows that clung to her protectively and tried to hide her from the things that scared her. Without light, there were no shadows. That was how the creature had found her, her pale body stood out like a beacon in pure darkness, she was vulnerable. In the light it was better, she flitted from shadow to shadow leaving inky footprints in her wake that shimmered like oil for a moment before dispersing.

A sudden sound broke the stillness. Footsteps? Voices? Selda gasped in a little breath before darting behind a tree and making herself as small as possible. The shadows at her hooves crawled up her legs like living creatures, trying to shield her body from sight but the young foal didn't understand her ability, couldn't do her part to shape them to her will. Selda was a trembling fuzzy ball, hiding her eyes under a leg, if the 'danger' had come back to get her this time it had brought a friend, there was no where to run, she could only hide and hope it didn't find her this time. She sniffled audibly.


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