Boltin

...Many weeks earlier...

Ryheric and the black colt Son of Mouse (whom he secretly named Kacis - Escape) spent weeks of travel in haste, and hidden off the main roads where possible.

The horse was paced, and took to the routines and rhythms well. Their travels were far from trouble-free. But Kacis was a good horse, and Ryheric taking troubled paths was like a duck in water. So familiar was he to this way of life.

He drank in the wilderness and his solitude.

(Many weeks earlier)...

It had become a habit now. The lost young stallion would stand in the field behind the stable, apart from the other horses, with the rising sun striking on his handsome, ruddy coat while he grazed. Now and again his head would lift, ears forward, expectantly looking for the woman who had been caring for him so diligently since his departure from the adopted herd.