It never felt right to be out at night, it always seemed like somewhere somehow someone needed him to be someplace else, it was a bothersome nagging feeling, distracting, but he could do nothing about it now, he was far far from home. Stepping over rocks strewn about the valley floor, Dirty trotted at a steady pace, determined to cover as much ground as possible before the need to sleep over took him. It was hard, though an insomniac who slept little it had been three days already and he was starting to grow unsteady on his feet, fortunately horses were sturdily built creatures so he felt no fear of falling over or anything. He just weaved and wobbled a bit on his hooves, moving a bit more carefully and with less of his usual natural grace.

Above him the stars stretched for miles, tiny flickering dots amongst an inky blackness that the horse shifter found unnerving. He was used to his skies being washed out by city lanterns and torches, his nights not quiet but bright and alive, full of laughter and sex and drinking and games. It was weird being out in it alone, the darkness was suffocating and quiet, the silence in a strange way deafening. He paused with a hoof in the air when something scurried through some brush beside him. There were creatures out here in the night, animals and bandits and beasts and monsters. He wasn’t really smart enough to be a coward but he had a healthy sense of self preservation that made him very uncomfortable in the night, he’d have to stop soon, to find a cave to spend the night in probably, or at the very least a corner to back himself up against so that nothing could sneak up on him.

Rounding a sweeping bend, he was suddenly struck by the sight of a light, not bright enough to be a campfire but something small and mobile, a torch perhaps or the fated breath of a dragon moving swiftly into a cavern. The thoroughbred froze where he was, still cast in the shade of the night darkness, his ears pinned to his neck. Dragons ate horses, well some of them did anyway, he’d been chased and teased enough by them to know. His nostrils flared and his flicked his tail thoughtfully, some flicker of common sense begging him to turn around and take another pass through the mountains. He was in no rush, it was probably safer on higher ground, he could see farther, find more caves, maybe it was even faster to travel that way, he didn’t know. But common sense was never his strong suit.

With a whisper of wind that tickled his mane, the hair shrank against his skull. His hooves split into fingers and toes, the harness he had been wearing fell to the ground around his ankles with a thud and sooner rather than later he was more man than beast, standing naked for a few moments before taking the time to retrieve his clothes from the satchel he had been wearing around his neck. He pulled on a pair of pants and his fancy leather tunic- dyed blue with long sleeves and a long golden cape attached. He felt a bit over dressed to be sneaking after someone in the night but curiosity nagged at him and, with a settling huff of breath that fogged in the air before him, he set off after the faint glow he had seen up ahead.

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