"I'm restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again."
The hills behind the bustling town of Bree were quiet, and Cinder lay in the grass, undisturbed by everything except for the wind, which nipped at her cheeks and her lips and yanked at her red hair, as if trying to get her attention. Sadie grazed nearby, occasionally trotting over to bump her nose against the side of Cinder's head, in which her owner would reach a hand up to bury her fingers in the mare's mane.
Storm clouds were rolling in from the west, sending a rumble of thunder across the sky. She was in no rush, but Cinder pushed herself to her feet, reaching for Sadie's reigns. "Come on. We don't want to get caught in that," she told the horse, turning toward the empty festival grounds.
The tents abandoned from the last festival made for excellent cover from the rain, with Cinder sitting down in the grass and Sadie curling around her like she was a foal. It poured, heavier then Cinder had seen it in months, and she leaned back against the mare with a book open against her knees, barely reading it while her gaze instead watched the rain and the silence and the hills in the distance, longing for something she couldn't place a name to.
