Island Resort

               He has spent only a little time among them, but already the mares who had joined him in his home were keeping him busy. With one attempted theft and now one challenge for two of their kind, he was beginning to think that he wished to start seeking the position of lead mare. She would have to be someone who was strong enough in the mind that she could aid in the protecting of the herd. She would have to be someone who could be firm as well as kind. She would have to be someone that could help and understand the others. She would have to be someone who has been able to offer the herd children. His mind roves. He cannot seem to settle on any one mare. Any one provider. He ends up counting down the list to try and discover the different pros and cons of each. In the end he found himself disliking this activity immensely. He did not wish to favor one over the others, but he also did not wish for them to be without leadership as the size of the herd began to grow and lose the safety of anonymity.
               Spite had been the first he had chosen to greet and so she was the first that he thought on. She was ornery, yes, but her firm hand was unlike any other he had ever seen. If she could but forget to be cruel, she would have been a grand choice. As it was, however, her own self hatred mingled and mashed with a feeling of unfairness in the world. It made her suit her name and he could not allow that to rise up and over the rest. Choire, he thinks, is too meek, too shy. Though that might change in the future, he did not wish for her to have to worry herself when it was a worry for her already to be without a voice. Tusk? Well she had been nigh invisible for too long for the others to accept her. Natusia, Kalianah, and Thunderstruck were too new to give them a title that granted power over the mares who knew the island better and knew more of the others better. It came down to four horses.
               Haeresis was a delight to speak with and incredibly seemed to be everywhere at once. Many times she had been there first when he had arrived to some sound of a stranger - a future family member - had been in need of welcome. She had a handsome boy, though not his own, that might prove to be as good an heir as his own children. She would know the other women and would be able to keep up with all the goings on while he was away. Then there were the twins. Cowslip and Parsley were not ousted for their lack of separate senses. They completed each other into one solid horse when they worked together. The heightened senses they shared could prove quite useful… and despite the stillborn, Cowslip had conceived as well as her twin. It was just a twist of fate that there are not two foals trotting at their sides. They were the second most prevalent and recognized faces among his herd. Finally, there was Ranimara. He felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of her. She had given up her life among the Amazons to come and live simply and he had a feeling the simplicity was growing too complicated. She had with her twin sons! Two boys who could one day become his lieutenant and his heir. He is sure and proud of the mare, but he needed to clear the air first.
               So he goes. He follows the trail down from the plateau in the center of their island, making his way through the trees as he thinks it all through. He did need the help. The women needed a person to keep watch and provide their minds with things to accomplish, things to do so they did not grow idle and lose their excitement for life. They needed a firm hand to tell them what would be done and a fun heart to make it worth their while. His deep stallion-cry rumbles across his territory like a rolling thunder. ‘To me’ it says. They would know to meet him at the clearing with the spring because he had told them all about it upon their arrivals. He stands next to the minor waterfall, the little murmur like white noise behind whatever would be said. The flowers were in bloom. He was excited. He had seen the children from afar, but never had he been introduced, nor had he been near enough to touch. It is the other reason for this gathering and he trembles a little - just for a moment - for the thought of meeting them, for the thought of choosing the lead.