It did not take long for her battle to expand to a war, and the snow around the heavy draft mare grew ever more packed as she lunged and kicked and stamped her way in widening circles as she defended her home from a horde of enemies. It did not matter that her joints twinged with every impact, or that her hips had begun to ache from all the extra exertion: Impazienza’s body may have aged, but today her heart was as young as a two-year old’s. She had just pivoted to face the general, a compact chestnut stallion by the name of Stitch, when her fantasy was interrupted by a child’s high cry. The blanketed mare recognized the passion behind it: once, she had filled a Forest with similar cries. She planted her wide hooves, Stitch suspended in time but not forgotten, and watched the graying filly batter at her own enemy.
A low, warm voice interrupted their play before Impazienza could address or join the girl’s fight. She turned, and all the joy in her face dissipated to see a stallion standing in her home. His colors matched her brother’s, although Rurisk’s blanket did not travel quite so high on his back and the intruder’s body did not appear to be as battered and scarred as her little brother’s, and his body language did not express aggression. Still, her narrowed slightly as he addressed her as “miss,” and she wondered sardonically why all males seemed to assume borders only applied to their own territories. Stallions had done nothing but bring trouble to her life, disrupting her peace with their greed and presumptuous ideas about the roles of mares in addition to their misplaced and outdated chivalry. She had come to the Peak to get away from all of them, and now there was one on her own fucking doorstep.
Had the girl not been present, Impazienza’s reply would have been scathing and immediate, but she was the Prime Minister of the Peak and some decorum was called for in the presence of an impressionable filly. She looked down at the girl who stared up at her with such wonder and interest and her lips quirked in a half-grin. “I suppose we could capture him,” she said to the girl, lowering her voice conspiratorially. “No doubt he came with the enemy and is here to spy upon us.”
The half-blind mare lifted her gaze to Strack, all the warmth gone from her eyes. “But that would be rude. And we of the Peak are civil when we must be. There are plenty of other territories on this island that collect snowfall, Strack,” she said, testing his name on her tongue and spitting it out like a bug. “What brings you specifically to our mountain?” Civil, she would be, but only to the bare minimum. She had not invited this stallion here, after all, and Impazienza had reached an age where she was tired of suffering the presence of male company.
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