she knew this feeling. Božena knew the heartrending ugly pang of misery that this moment brought… always proud of her heritage, her uncommon profile, she wished now that she looked like someone else. anyone else… because she knew the feeling of hope and then it’s sudden abolishment.

was this how the tall friesian mare from the peak, inka, had felt so long ago when she had washed up on the shore of the islands so long ago? perhaps it was… perhaps, in that moment, she had felt the same anguish at being unable to fill the role someone was so desperately searching for.

kendry is forgotten in the moment. the boy becomes everything. he is a knife in her heart, and then he is something else. something warm and soft against her, something begging and good and sweet…she suddently feels the most exquisite type of pain. love.

the emotion crashes over her in a fierce tidal wave, softening her stiff frame to mold around the colt. her large head tucks down over his neck, black muzzle stroking the offside of his shoulder carefully. she whispers to him, tears welling in her eyes as she wishes she could take the pain and sorrow from his little body into her own large one, ”nikdy, dítě. nebojte se, jsem tady.”

it has been a long time, somehow, since she thought of her rodina… somehow she has trained her mind away from them. she doesn’t want to consider it, but the boy against her makes the dreaded hope come alive again. if this boy has survived… if kune had survived… was there any of her rodina that may still live? after all this time?

her thoughts are disrupted then, as she sees the pale figure of kendry in the distance. he stands stiffly, braced against some unknown force, with a look of neutrality plastered across his features. Božena wants to call out to him, to cry her thanks at the blessing he has brought to her, but she does not want to move, to utter any sound that may break the tenuous embrace she is locked in now.

then the massive stallion is moving away without even a glance back at her. despite the circumstances, Božena had hoped that perhaps he had brought the boy to her for reasons other than just their shared krev…because he wanted to see her, to speak with her after all this time had passed… but clearly she was wrong… she lets a sigh leave her lips for her own sadness, melding her troubles in with the child’s against her. they would make it through the trials ahead together at least.