I would honestly love you now,
But I would lovingly let you down.
The stallion mulled around Paradise for weeks now, but finally, he had been able to concoct a plan. What began as a series of jumbled thoughts had morphed into strategy. In just a few more cycles of the sun's rise and fall, Jabari planned to ambush Rougaru in in the jungle. There, at dusk, he would fight for his and Calypso's freedom.
The painted stallion was smarter than to assume that this plan, no matter how long or how hard he'd thought on it, would work out. Rougaru had beaten him in battle before. Clearly the silver bay stallion had a home field advantage, over many others, in terms of his size and experience on the battlefield. But Jabari had no other options. It was fight or give up. And he couldn't give up on Calypso.
As the days went on, passing by at an excruciatingly slow pace, the painted Prairie stallion did find some distractions to keep him busy. Calypso, of course, was number one. He spent nearly all of his time tucked away with her, far from the rest of the Paradise herd. But in recent days he'd also run into another captive from his home island. Titania was hardly friendly. And she made it quite clear she wasn't interested in his help or guidance. Instead, she cozied up to one of Rougaru's other mares, a sultry painted girl named Vanya, who seemed just as untrustworthy and devious as Celestria had been. So as quickly as they had been introduced, Jabari chose to disengage. But his thoughts often wandered back to that happenstance meeting between the three of them. Everything about it didn't sit right in his gut.
He was thinking about them both - Titania and Vanya - now, as his blue eyes stared out across the endless, black ocean. The stars blurred over the wake of the sweeping waves. The moonlight shone brightly against its cresting peaks. Calypso had already bed down for the night in their favorite enclave, and Jabari was due to return to her shortly. He looked out into the dark night, imagining his family back on opposite shore of the Prairie, staring up at the same starry sky. His heart ached for them.
Jabari cast his gaze down the beach when he caught the semi-familiar scent of another stallion in the area. The sabino strolled his way casually, and their stares locked briefly before he settled in not far from him. Jabari had certainly seen the stallion around before - he assumed he lived here full time, perhaps a Lagoon stallion sent by Cullen to aid his ally. Jabari wasn't sure, but he couldn't imagine Rougaru tolerating another stallion with a family of his own on his land. But then the stallion spoke, friendly and casual enough. Jabari's copper ears flicked forward and back atop his skull when he introduced himself as Rougaru's "beta" here. He snorted once in response.
"Jabari." He eventually blurted out, wondering if his name alone would answer Gnome's question. "Why do you want to know?" He asked next with the flick of his red tail. Jabari's existence here, and his history with Rougaru certainly wasn't a secret to the herd in Paradise. But as Jabari learned the hard way before, he wasn't keen on making friends during his captive period here. The last thing he wanted to do was to reveal any information that could potentially hurt his family back on Luthien.
Stallion | Brienne x Shamwari | Chesnut Overo | 15.2 h| Photo © Carina Mailwald | © Vinyl |
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