The stream bends suddenly, dipping in near the forest.
Ferns grow thickly here, fronds dipping down, green and leafy. The tree bark is thick with velvety moss and young bracken grow in curling clumps from the tree's base, fuzzy like velvet from a deer's antlers.
The water course doubles back on itself just downstream to make a small swirling pool, the narrow banks a thick rich black mud dotted with smooth stones. Hidden somewhere nearby tree frogs croak faintly, their voices musically blending with that of the water trickling past. Gratefully you sit on the bank and dandle your toes in the stream, looking for the small amphibians.
There is a soft feathery sound near you and a ripple of sunlight on leaves... No.

As you focus on the spot you realise it isn't just light but a tiny winged horse standing very still on a lichen clad rock, watching you thoughtfully.
It's colouring is perfect camoflage for this place, the variety greens in it's coat blending it into the leaves and large yellow lozenges of yellow dapple it's coat like sunlight on ferns.
When it realises you have noticed it and are admiring it's coat the creature bob's it's head shyly.
"Hello." It pipes in a silvery voice, not unlike a handful of small copper bells.
The creature flutters it's wings uneasily and shifts it's weight self conciously.
" I am Daintree, a shaenel. My kind come from Sha Haven and are cousins to crenels."
She, for you are certain now it is a young mare, seems to forget a little of her shyness as she continues."This pool is named Fern Bend by those who use words and is my own nook, the stream comes down from the mountains... I think it's called the Etrae. It leads down into the Great Lake down on the plains."
Daintree shuffles her wings and watches a fish glitter beneath the streams surface before bobbing once in farewell and melting away into the foliage as silently as she came, if she hadn't been there when you arrived, leaving you to choose your path: continuing along down the stream through the forest, follow the waterway upstream or head North towards a mass of russet leaved trees