Jetta is deep in another contraction when Requiem finds her. Her head is limp against the cold cave floor, her nostrils flared, and her eyes squeezed shut as she rides out the wave of intense pain. Distantly, as if in a dream, she hears the clop of hooves on stone, and then the cry of a male voice calling her name. She cannot react until the pain has passed. When it has, she lifts her head just a few inches from the ground, sweaty forelock plastered to her forehead, and looks blearily up at the horse above her. The pale gold stallion is framed by the warm morning light spilling into the cave, making him look positively angelic.
A weary smile touches her pale lips. “Requiem,” she breathes, but then she registers the worry wrinkling his young, handsome face. “I’m okay, really.” As if to prove this point, she painstakingly heaves her body up into a reclining position, her white-splashed legs folded awkwardly beneath her huge belly. She knows she has only a few minutes before the next contraction takes hold of her, but she intends to make the most of it.
“It’s so nice to see you again,” she tells him with a soft smile, her blue eyes bright with affection despite the weariness that weighs down her eyelids. “I’m just sorry I didn’t come sooner, and that you had to find me like this. But I wanted…” Her pale face spasms with a jolt of discomfort, but it’s only the foal shifting. “I wanted to be here, to see you, before the foal comes.” Her eyes drop to the ground for a moment, then search his face to see if he has garnered her meaning.
13; friesian mutt; dark bay splash; 16.1hh
mother of wade & prairie |
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