[AW] She's a restless spirit on an endless flight

[Aoife]

The darkest hour before the dawn holds a magic unlike any other.  The moonlight has faded but the suns light has not yet awoken.  The brief passing of responsibility between Caligo and Oriens brings a faint glow to the horizon which casts lances of golden light and long shadows between the maidencane as Aoife walks ponderously through the squelchy sphagnum moss puddles.  The chill of night still stings her skin but those rays of dawn light bring the promise of warmth.  It is summer after all she tells herself as she heads toward the more open marshlands.  She watches as a shoebill wanders out from a patch of cattails some 10 meters ahead of her.  He dips his head down and spreads his wings, almost as if praying to Oriens, but Aoife knows he's just sunning his wings and warming up to begin the day.  She walks slowly so as not to startle him but he spooks anyway when he sees her and laboriously lifts himself into the sky, startling a couple of other birds who take flight with him.  "Sorry old boy" Aoife says, smiling "didn't mean to frighten you".  Ever since she was a filly she'd found other creatures easier to empathise with than horses.  Maybe it was the relentless teasing, or the the death of her tribe, but she'd always been a little afraid that they would reject or even worse hurt her in some way.  She still longed for equine interaction desperately though.  I mean that was why she left the mountains, right?  "But nobody's going to hang out with a girl who smells like skunk cabbage and lives in a swamp" she told herself pragmatically as she continued walking.

"But I like it here" she wrinkled her nose like a whingey foal.

"If you want friends you need to stop talking to yourself out aloud" she added to herself as an afterthought.

The sun had mostly risen and it was starting to get hotter so she went down onto her knees and then rolled in the shallow muddy water, without thinking.  She stood up and shook like a dog, her long mane whipping around full of muddy sticks and rotting leaves, mud splattering everywhere.  "At least there's no one around to see me" she thought and giggled.