than hiking over the top of the range.

Spirit looked around and spotted Rain trailing at the back of the pack. He dropped behind to talk to her. "Rain, I know that you're worried, but Jade is tough, and she's got Durango with her. She'll be fine, she came back to us before."

She glared at him as they walked. "You don't know that, Spirit. They could have been captured, they could have fallen. And even if they are alright Jade is heavily pregnant, when last time she was a young mare - fast as the wind and as strong as the sun. There's a big difference between travelling over flat ground and covering a mountain range in her condition."

She trotted ahead of him and mingled with the other mares, making it apparent that she didn't want to talk to him. Spirit sighed and looked back. The valley looked so far away already. Everything he had ever known was behind him, and the entire herd would have to learn to survive in a new and unforgiving land.

Shivering, they made it into the cave. About half way up the trail it had begun to snow. Tiny flakes, delicate and perfectly sculptured, had fallen. It was a beautiful sight, and it almost helped the two horses forget their troubles for a while. But then the flakes clumped and started to fall quicker. The wind picked up, and before long they were caught in a snow storm.

Jade shook her body to get rid of the mush that was clinging to her frozen body. It was cold in the cave but at least it was dry. She lay down and curled up as much as she could. Durango joined her on the hard ground, offering his body heat to warm her up.

Jade chuckled. "Last time we curled up together like this was after the fire. Do you remember?"

He smiled. "Yeah, but it wasn't anywhere near as cold as this."

They fell asleep together, blocking out the howling wind from their exhuasted minds and getting some well earned rest.

Durango woke first and carefully stood up, trying not to wake her. It was the middle of the night, and the snow was still forming. He could barely see out of the cave mouth because of the storm. He looked into the depths of the cave. A small trickle of water appeared out of the dark, passed by the still sleeping mare, and out into the storm. It meant ice - melting ice - and an uphill slope.

He got Jade up and they started walking deeper into the cavern. It instantly became impossible to see properly without the little daylight they had at the mouth of the cave. Every step they made echoed. Over the hours of walking the cave grew a little narrower at a time until they could only go in single file, Jade at the front, Durango behind her.

Eventually a dim glow appeared further down the long tunnel. As they neared it, it seemed to become tinted blue. The passage began to widen until both of them could walk together for the first time since the morning. Suddenly the walls and ceiling vanished, revealing a vast ice carvern, towering hundreds of feet above them, and hovering hundreds of feet below them.

The light was filtered through thick sheets of ice above their heads, illuminating the frozen cave in a piercing blue. A shelf of ice spread from where they were standing, along the cave wall next to the mountainside and off to the inky darkness of another cave. An icy breeze seemed to be blowing from it. Fresh air, a beacon pointing to an exit.

"It's a way out," Durango said aloud, gazing around the beautiful discovery, "but it could be a sheer drop where it opens out."

"But we should at least try," Jade said, taking a few steps onto the ice platform. It creaked a little, but quickly adjusted to her weight, so she continued to take small steps at a time.

She edged along the ice, slipping a few times but regaining her posture, until she was nearly at the other side. Durango stepped on too. The ice groaned beneath his hooves, but he decided to go for it. He made progress faster than Jade, and had nearly caught up with her, when the first crack appeared.

A hairline split in the ice began underneath it, and spread centimetre by centimetre up the side of the platform and across it in front of Durango. It quickly gave way, slipping a good few inches and wedging itself against the remaining ice.

"It's gonna go, Jade!" he shouted.

"Then move!"

He jumped from the spot, but his back legs just slid behind him and he fell onto his stomach. The ice slipped again. He pushed himself back up on his front legs and scrabbled up the platform as it began to slope. He heard the crunch again and launched himself towards the rocky ledge in front of the cave entrance. His front hooves landed, then his back ones. The ice finally crumbled down into the dark depths of the cavern, but he only realised that his hind left foot was still on the ice. As it went, Durango lost his footing on the cliff edge.

He thought he was a gonner. As the ground disappeared below him, something tugged at his mane. Jade had grabbed him, and was pulling him with all her might back up onto the ledge. After a minute of struggling, he climbed back onto solid earth.

They moved into the exit cave as quickly as possible, eager to get away from the sheer edge. The stray light from both ends of the tunnel lessened the darkness' grip on them, and before the end of the day the cave mouth was in sight. Whether it was a straight drop down or a vertical climb up, they had to leave the caves. There was no way back to where they had come from.

Durango poked his nose out of the cave and sniffed. The air was freezing in his lungs and he drew himself back into the slightly warmer shelter. He looked out of the cave to see a trail leading gently up the side of the mountain, now covered in snow, getting gradually steeper along the way.

"Well, we're in luck," he said, lying down next to Jade in the darkness. "There's a clear and easy path up the mountain and through a pass. We should take that way and stick to it, but there's little shelter and even less food."

"I'll be fine," she smiled. "Remember our journey to the valley? We survived, we found just enough food to keep us going."

"But that wasn't a mountain range, Jade. Life is harsher up here, hardly anything grows," he replied.

She lay her head down to sleep. "We'll get by. It will all be worth it."

They continued to make their way up the trail to the pass over the next few days. But something was bugging Jade as she trudged through the endless snow. It was something that Durango had said about his mother, Tammy, weeks ago, when they were still running from the men in the valley. He had wondered what she looked like now. Jade had known for years that she was dead, but beneath the military precision, loyalty and valour Durango was a very sensitive soul. She knew that his heart would break if he ever found out.

And so she had kept it a secret, thinking all along that she could tell him another time. But now that Major had stirred memories and emotions the sorrel stallion was asking questions and it would only be a matter of time before he managed to get the answer from the uneasy-looking mare. She would prefer to be told honestly, than to realise that someone was keeping a secret about somebody close to her. Maybe a year ago she could have talked to him alone, but now the news was ancient and no matter how he found out he would not be understanding.

Still, she had to tell him.

One evening they stopped to rest under an overhang of rock. The snow blew past them like bullets but they managed to stay relatively dry under the shelter. Jade decided to lie down, the foal was kicking her to pieces. Durango joined her and tried to keep warm. After an hour or so she spoke up, her voice trembling and quiet.

"Durango, there's something I should tell you," she said, trying to avoid his eyes.

"Uh oh, I hope it's not that the foal is someone else's!" he joked.

She tried to laugh, but she couldn't. All she could think about was how his mood would suddenly change. "Do you remember when you first told me about your childhood at the military base?" He nodded. "You said that you grew up on a ranch, and you talked about your parents. Well, I was trained there before I was sold to the army. And I knew you your mother well, she was my best friend."

He was speachless. "Why didn't you tell me?" he smiled. She looked away and tried not to cry.

"Well, I never wanted to tell you because you would want to know how she was, and before I left she got colic, and-" She broke off, and looked at him squarely. "She was put to rest, Durango."

He said nothing, but got up and went to the edge of the overhang and stood there for minutes on end. He was tense and clearly angry. Jade hated the waiting, but what hurt the most was how he seemed to hate her. "Durango? Please say something."

He rounded on her. "And you never thought to tell me?"

"I didn't want to hurt you!" she cried.

"Everyone get's hurt, Jade, but the longer the bullet is there the more you bleed!" he thundered.

She couldn't look at him anymore. "You had lost a love, you had been taken from your family, you had lost soldiers and horses alike in bloodshed. I didn't want you to have that on your shoulders too. And since you lashed out at me in the meadow that time I knew you had a temper, so I also didn't tell you because I thought you would take it out on me. I was scared, but  I was right too."

The next morning they began walking again, but in silence. Jade started to notice how he was always walking a little too fast for her