The stranger turned, took note of her, and made to close the distance between them. Idelle felt as though roots had sprung up through the soft sand and wrapped around her fetlocks, effectively anchoring her where she stood. Within her chest her little heart beat rapidly, head up and body language alert. Idelle had no idea the monstrosity which strangers were known for, but the way mother kept her from them she had to imagine it was horrendous.
Of course, as she aged and watched with eyes too innocent to truly understand mother’s woes, Idelle found contradictions. She was around the common grounds enough to see when two strangers met for the first time, some holding conversations where their warm laughter carried straight through to the dark tree line she cowered in. As all children might, Idelle began to believe that there was a chance, however slight, that mother was wrong; that strangers were not, in fact, something to be frightened by.
With this thought in hand, Idelle took it upon herself to rebel against mother’s rules and forcibly calmed herself from what worries were jumping in her mind. She looked upon the bay as he approached, studying him as though he were a work of art she was attempting to puzzle the meaning from. He was her first stranger, after all, and this made him a peculiar source of wonder. Would mother be proved right? Or would Idelle’s curious thoughts only grow in size, thus feeding in to her young rebellion?
Her ears flicked forward as he spoke. She dropped her head, just slightly, and sniffed the air curiously between them, drawing in his scent while eyeing him with all the innocence of a curious fawn. “Good morning,” she said, and her voice was incredibly soft between them, lack of confidence and just short of a squeak. She swallowed, half-grown tail flicking at her hind end.
He’d mentioned the morning, and Idelle thought of the freshly fallen snow that hadn’t been disturbed by hooves before she walked it, and of the fog hanging over the ocean waves. She looked to them briefly, head turning so she could study the stranger and the world with the eye she could properly see from. “It is.” She agreed before refocusing her attention on him. “What’s your name?” If she knew his name didn’t that mean he wasn’t a stranger anymore? As time passed and he didn’t turn toward violence she began to grow more and more confident in her curiosity of him.
idelle
demons born of past wrongs that hound and harrass him
one year old filly. black. half-blind. sandman x cam