Mossfire flew up to greet the three incoming pegasi. Stormflight and Graystripe balked at the sight of Mossfire's wooden wings, just able to let the weanling carried by them fly. But Ashfeather kept her position, willing to be the spokesperson for her group. "Who are you?" She asked. "I'm Mossfire," Mossfire answered. "I live here. Do you want to be part of my herd?" Ashfeather looked skeptical. "What's up with your wings?" The answer tumbled out of Mossfire's mouth. He didn't even know it until he said it. "The Trap is my sire," Mossfire said. At this, Stormflight and Graystripe retreated even further away from Mossfire. Seeing her friends' discomfort, with some embarrassment, Ashfeather nodded her neck in affirmation. "We'll join your herd," she said. "What is it called?" Mossfire thought about this a little. Finally, he decided. "We are Forest Herd," he said.

Mossfire soared through the jetstream until he arrived at the Trap, making a clean, instinctive exit out of the jetstream. He dropped down on a patch of moss, spreading his wooden wings wide. A few birds came to land on him, and he made the Trap his home. Mossfire never had a mare to feed him milk, so he weaned himself, grazing on grass in clearings. He was six moons old now, at about the age that normal pegasi would be weaned. He would wander the Trap every day, finding good places to graze, and he'd settle in some hollow log every night. He occasionally strayed to the borders of Snow Herd lands, become more of a local legend than his mom had been. He was called the Wooden Pegasus. Ashfeather was a weanling in Snow Herd. Her dam was a mare named Grasscloud, her sire was the overstallion, Coldwing, and she liked to play with other weanlings. One day, she and her best friends, Stormflight and Graystripe, decided to play a prank on Coldwing. They found some red berries in the woods, and, laughing, put them in a patch of grass reserved for Coldwing, hiding them in a way that they were sure that he would eat them. "This'll be our best prank yet," Ashfeather said to her friends. They watched in excitement as Coldwing ate in his special patch. They saw the red juice on his muzzle, and they also saw when Coldwing started to collapse, shaking, in the throes of death. Grasscloud came up to Ashfeather, shaking her wings in anger. She knew her filly's pranks when she saw them. "What have you done?" Grasscloud said. "We fed Coldwing some berries, hoping he would taste the bitterness." "You did more than that, you awful filly. You fed Coldwing deathberries. You killed your sire." "No!" "You are banished from your herd, Ashfeather, along with your friends." In anger, Grasscloud walked away. Ashfeather and her friends, left with no choice, flew off to the Trap. Mossfire watched them come, giddy with excitement. He could start his own herd now.

Mossfire's dam, Clawrain, wandered the Trap, trying to find her way out. She had been wandering for years, and she had become a sort of legend in Snow Herd, appearing at times in their territory, but she had been banished from there, so she couldn't go there. She was hoping to find the coast, so she could find her way out of Anok and start a new life somewhere else. She was getting bored of the tall tree and branches that scraped her silver wings, and the burrs that stuck on her dappled gray coat. She had gone a little crazy, talking to the trees and the squirrels that chattered away in them. She needed to get back to pegasuskind before she could leave. So she made up her mind to fight her way out of the trees and fly to the Sun Herd lands, to get food before her journey. She hoped that maybe they'd even accept her. So she flew as high as she could go and battled the trees with her hooves, breaking branches left and right, until she could see the great blue sky. She soared as high as she could, hoping to get her bearings before she flew to the Sun Herd lands. Suddenly, a great air current, a jetstream, took her in its grasp, flinging her across Anok. Terrified, Clawrain tried to exit, then remembered the danger of it. She swooped across Snow Herd lands and kept moving until she arrived at Mountain Her. There, two Mountain Herd skyherders caught sight of her and pulled her out of the jetstream, sending all three of them toppling down toward the mountains. At the last minute, a Mountain Herd warrior caught Clawrain. Two others caught the skyherders. Clawrain looked at the warrior as he put her down. "I'm Flamefeather," he said. "Thanks," Clawrain said. He set her down, telling her to avoid Rockwing. She mildly agreed, distracted by his glossy chestnut coat and black mane. A few moons later, Clawrain gave birth to her and Flamefeather's colt. She took one look at him and gasped. His mane was made of moss, and his wings were made of wood. She named him Mossfire. "This must be some punishment from the Ancestors," she thought. "I can't show him to Flamefeather!" She left Mossfire out in the Vein, not caring what wild animals found him. As soon as she left, Mossfire took flight in a jetstream, on his way back to the Trap.