Rivaini

The silver bay had changed over the course of the past season - both physically and emotionally..

Sometimes Rivaini spent hours in the shallows of the small valley’s pool, trying to find herself in the reflection that gazed back up at her. Though the swell of her growing belly was subtle, it drew the red woman’s eyes no matter how determinedly she sought to see beyond it. As if the yet-unborn foal was slowly taking away from her everything that she had been. Sapping her of the strength she’d always relied upon, of the fierceness that had governed both her actions and words. Stealing the freedom that he’d always treasured, and tying the threads of her fate not only to its own but also to a stallion whom some days she would have been content to never encounter again.

Rougaru.

There were days, however, that Rivaini’s thoughts towards the chocolate stallion were less resentful. Days that she wondered whether he was thinking of her, and whether he still anticipated the birth of this child with as much passion as he had prior to its conception. After a time, the silver bay came to blame this softening on the shifting of hormones that had accompanied her pregnancy. In more than one way, this phenomenon had proven to be both a blessing and a curse. It was a relief to feel something other than the revulsion and resentment that had defined the days following her coupling with the king of Paradise. But it was also confounding to feel the first tentative stirrings of something like affection for the incipient child, particularly when her mind still shrank away from the thought of her impending motherhood.

During the sleepless nights that she stood beside her dark companion, Rivaini was haunted by one particular question that she could not hope to answer. Had this been a child of the heart - one conceived through love and mutual desire - would she still harbor such dread? Against every instinct of self-protection, she had given her heart to Faolain - and the joy she’d felt when the ‘Teke had responded in kind was indescribable. In a similar way, she didn't doubt that she would one day surrender her body to the Guardian as well. And though by the laws of nature nothing could come of such a coupling, the red woman suspected that things would have been different if it could. That the shared light of their happiness would have eclipsed the twin darknesses of her doubts and fears. That she would have looked forward to the life that she and her little shadow had created together.

Absorbed in her own little sphere of thoughts, it took some time for Rivaini to become aware of changes that had taken place in her companion as well. Faolain had become more protective of the larger Andalusian mare - which might have been amusing if not for the injuries she’d recently returned to the Ridge with. By the scent that clung to the slender woman’s coat, it was clear she had fought with Rougaru again. And though the silver bay struggled to give her companion both the time and space to explain when she was ready, her concerns only grew with the continued silence. So today she pursued the familiar perfume of her fellow Guardian through the Ridge, determined to clear the wall of secrets that had begun to rise between them.

Unfortunately, by the time she found her heart, Rivaini was also reunited with the source of her inner turmoil.

“Fae!” She called brightly in the moments that preceded their three-way encounter, leaping nimbly over a mossy log. “As much as I love a game of hide-and-seek, I thought that today we could - we could -” Emerging from the jungle moments after the black ‘Teke, Rivaini found herself facing the familiar figure of the chocolate stallion and froze. The endearments she might’ve spoken faded on the silver bay’s lips, and if not for the presence of Faolain she would have fled. But the pull of her beloved was a strong counter to the dread that filled her at the sight of Paradise’s king, and served to restore some of the strength that she’d thought lost to her. Moving forward to stand boldly beside the other woman, Rivaini listened perplexedly as Faolain addressed the stallion with a softer note that had been absent during any of their previous interactions. Just what had happened between the pair of them during the course of their most recent battle?

“Rougaru,” Rivaini greeted the stallion, compensating slightly for Faolain’s absence of coolness with an emphasis on her own. “Have you lost track of your seasons?” She asked in a too-sweet voice, glancing sideways at the other Guardian. The rush of affection that filled her at the sight of her beloved shadow served to soften the rigidity she’d assumed, if not the stilted formality of her words. “It's winter, not spring - so as much as it may disappoint you, I'll have to send you home empty-handed today.”

mare / six / silver bay tobiano / andalusian mix / 15.3hh