mare; mérens horse; 14hh; black
3 years
no home
Nadine did not have to wait long for someone to approach, and it was just her luck that a kind mare would be the one rather than a stallion. What had she done to deserve such a streak of good fortune? And here she had thought she would need to provide a child in the hopes of being offered a home, a condition that was not guaranteed even if she did become pregnant.
”Ah, vous avez raison, but at least the days are so lovely here,” she said cheerfully. ”Lucky for me, I have the warmer fur at my legs.” She lifted one black foreleg to display the moderate feathering around her hooves, which did help a bit when the weather got cold, but Nadine’s heart belonged to the summer. Even when the merciless sun saturated her ebony coat, the Mérens mare loved it. In the mountains where she grew up, the air was often colder, but the skies were so clear that she and her sisters and the fillies of neighboring herds could sunbathe. She was reminded of her childhood friend whom she had left behind, and her heart panged briefly. Sæunn loved the cold and the mountains, and had lived much higher than Nadine’s herd wished to travel. The little black mare could not blame her friend for staying in the peaks, but she missed her terribly.
This was a new chapter of her life, though. Sæunn would keep her happiness in the mountains, and Nadine would chase hers down through the islands. Her dark green eyes swept over the sooty mare who had approached her, noting the complete lack of winter coat. It was so early in the autumn that it might mean nothing, but Nadine could hope. ”Where is it you have come from?” she asked in her thick French accent, eager to follow wherever comforts had been promised, but especially if said comforts were warm. ”Do you live here, on this island? Is it very big?” She had a million more questions, but she stopped to give the other mare time to respond. At least, she tried. ”Oh! My name is Nadine, I almost forgot,” she blurted with a bubbly laugh.
Nadine
