“Let’s go Fraxni.” Kota huffs, her breath rolling from her pale nose in clouds of bright white. The first snows are on their way, and in the higher country, already well arrived. “I’ve got something I’ve been dying to do.” she whispers, playfully nipping her vulpine companion before picking up a trot and heading north to the Mountain.

The place where things are asked, they’re either denied, or received, and of course, lots of mystery in between. She was just here not too long ago, dying as she dragged herself up the rocks. Her soul peeling from her bones before getting sewn securely back to it again. If she had known what she knows now, she may not have asked for eternal life  ̶  her daughter is out there, waiting, watching from the clouds (or wherever her piece of paradise is).

The ghost-mare thinks of this often, her vision of the little black, bouncing and happy; a far fetch from the crooked body laying in the waves, the little body Kota let go of so many years ago, but never really did.

Her heart aches with the thought, but the energy drives her onward and up the mountainside. The journey is by no means an easy one, but much easier than the last time. Fraxni hops from rock to rock, enjoying the ascent into the swirling mists  ̶  up up up. Once at the top, sweaty and breathing a little heavier than normal, she finds a shady spot, looking around for any sign of what she's looking for.

She knows they watch, and so, she waits. Her little fox curled at her feet with its face buried in its tail.