____MASON ;
The colt stood at the highest rocky outcrop that overlooked the lagoon, and smirked – half with excitement and half with disbelief – as his eyes scoured the landscape below. His childhood home was... different, to say the least, from how he remembered it. It seemed smaller, somehow, and its cliffs and beaches were absolutely choked with greenery. Where there was no greenery, there was water, and lots of it; he could even feel it in the air, cloying and muggy on his skin. And the bugs! The damned things tickled every crevice he had, flying straight into his eyes and ears and nose as if some hidden treasure lay within. He kicked and swatted at them as best he could, but soon enough he was so itchy he could no longer stay still; the bay tobiano erupted into a trot and clambered down the most shallow part of the cliffside toward the water, hooves clacking on the rock and two-toned tail flagging behind him.
It was cooler down near the water, though obviously no less wet. Mason splashed through the shallows onto the nearest islet, a little grassy hill rising out of the water no wider than three horses standing nose to tail, and stopped to observe his surroundings once more. The sun hung behind the cliffside, casting him in gleeful shade, but he could see clearly that the main body of the herd was a fair distance away, grazing atop an islet much larger than his own, and beyond – skulking about in smaller groups – were the stallions.
Mason furrowed his mahogany brow, wondering if that meant his mother and father would be apart, which seemed unlike them: not that he cared, mind you, but it might make it more difficult to avoid them. Mercifully, there was no sign yet of Felony’s white-marked or Alex’s dark chocolate hides; there was, however, a young, muddied-up black mare – a filly, in truth, about his age – strolling nearby. There was something vaguely familiar about her, as though he might have spotted her once or twice right before he’d abandoned the lagoon all that time ago. She’ll do. The colt spent a few moments ogling her before inching to the edge of his islet, where the sand met the water, and whinnying confidently in her general direction.
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FIVE; EE Aa nT; FELONY x ALEXANDRA; MUTT; 16’1
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