The frost has flourished in the absence of life. In the back of a cave below the mountain, seasons passed the once-queen by and the snap of frost and magic in the air keep the goats and bears at bay.
Her sleeping body is entombed in this frost now, shimmering and statuesque. It had once been a gentle accent in her mane and tail (a gift from the fairies) but now overflows; fostered by the winters storms and protected in the belly of Hyaline's mountains with no movement or life-blood to keep it in check.
But now it cracks and crinkles musically for the first time in months as the sleeping creature draws breath.
Solace would not have guessed that Kagerus' gift of immortality would be a card that was played so soon, that what should have been the simplest of her pregnancies would kill her.
But it had, and death had forced her hand. But like many others in her magic-gorged world, it was not her end.
She stands, dream-fed and weak, shuffling sideways as fragments of black fill her vision and ice falls from her shoulders. 'It's too soon' a voice shouts in her head over the ringing in her ears, but she shakes it away before the words have time to sink in.
Solace steps towards the glow of morning, taking too many jig-steps to keep from tipping forward as she finds her feet for the first time in.... a year?
But now that she has risen her motion is unstoppable. The mare is driven from the safety of her shelter by a primal urge and objects which stand in her way are passed through with ease. Her thoughts have one focus, piecing together the fractured memories of her last child's birth.
Her magic is glitching as her body adjust to too many changes in not enough time. Immaterial and translucent the pegasus resembles a ghost more than a mare. She had never truly perfected the trait she received later in life. The times she needed it were few and far between.
"@[Oriash]?" Spectral-Solace calls as she makes her way south, and it is a terrible, wild sound. The trickle of a mountain stream draws her attention, and phasing through tree and boulder she walks in a straight line to the water, plunging her nose into the frigid waters. "@[aegean]?" She tries again after her drink but stumbles on before she even listens for an answer.
She doesn't know how long she wanders in this way, at one moment solid and the next intangible, but it feels like only moments. A thick fog clouds her mind, urging her onward without consideration for her body, but when she glances back at the distant mountains and up to the noon-day sun, she knows that her mind is a broken as her body seems to be.
With the realization, the fog seems to thin by the slightest of increments and she pauses to take in the damp air of The Forest. A deep breath helps to settle her nerves, and she walks on looking a little more like the composed ruler she had been for the majority of her life.
But her reckless resolve has not softened, she is prepared to search the continent over and over again until she finds her baby.
we are the ever-living ghost of what once was
Kyra feel free to play this as finding her right away or making her search for days! I can fill in any gaps in my next post
