His mother's soft murmurs roused the young boy from his nap gently, and he yawned sleepily as she nuzzled along his dark cheek and tickled at his mane. He was a bright child, and a willful one, for all of the smiling he did. He played hard and laughed hard, and napped hard as well. Dried grass clung to his lashes on the side that he'd pressed into the dirt when he'd finally succumbed to his nap, and he hastily brushed it free as his mother spoke.
"And I will know him because he smells of pine and wears a coat painted like mine," Saul responded with his own rhyme reflexively, looking up to favor her with a smile. In the early days of his foalhood, he'd been full of questions about this stallion of whom she spoke. Who he was and why he wasn't here. What she remembered of him. What he'd been like. With each new piece of the puzzle, Saul shaped a clearer picture of his father, King Solomon, and learned to love him through Kolfinna's eyes. Perhaps that was why he added his own couplet, as a way to honor both the way she'd taught him of Solomon, and to reflect a fraction of what he had learned of him.
What followed, however, was a break from their routine, and the boy's bright gaze cast upward to her face again with a small wrinkle of concern on his brow.
"We can go, momma, I'm big and stro-" His attempt to reassure her of his ability to go with her to the Cove now that he was older was curtailed by the imperious sound of a masculine call, and he oriented toward it with his neck taut and eyes wide. He didn't know if that was his father from the land of ice and snow, or if it was some other caller, but instinct drove him to respond. While his dam busied herself with sending one sister after another, Saul's tiny muzzle parted to release a reply of his own.
Solomon had spent the majority of his time on the islands in the shadow of Tinuvel's mountains. Their craggy, snow-capped peaks had always represented
home to him. Despite the fact that those mountains had likely been formed by the same event that had pushed the territory's namesakes into the air, Solomon had never felt anything but menace from the Peak's crowded landscape. They towered over him like watchful sentinels, judging him for crimes both committed in the past and those yet to come. It was an uncomfortable feeling, as if he would never possibly be able to rise above the man that he had been... and yet he knew that he had to try.
A far off whistle, too small to be that of Kolfinna, pulled his attention inland and he found his gaze searching the ridgeline avidly until the trio crested over it. His eyes went to the familiar monochrome figure of Kolfinna first, and he could not hold in the sigh of relief that escaped him as he finally allowed himself to acknowledge that he'd been worried about her. He worried about all of the mares that carried his children, of course, but few of them had been through as much as her, and none of the others had ever called the Peak home.
Closest to her was a boy of black and white, and in an instant, Solomon understood that
this was the first voice he'd heard and his heart melted. He hated knowing that he had missed all of the boy's firsts so far, but he was relieved to see that he seemed healthy and happy here in the Peak. Next, his gaze slid to the golden coated girl a little further back and his heart thumped uncomfortably. Her coloration reminded him of Suleiman, and her mannerisms of Seze, which left no doubt in his mind as to who she was.
Kalanthia.
"Kolfinna," he echoed as she reached him, his gaze sliding back to hers with a smile on his lips. He reciprocated her gentle cheek touch with one of his own, and it took everything in him to not wrap her in an embrace immediately. He owed her more apologies than he could ever give voice to, and while he knew that she didn't hold the far past against him anymore, it hadn't removed the guilt that still plagued him.
"Hello, my son," Solomon said warmly and then stretched forward to offer his muzzle. He wanted to wrap him in an embrace too, but he was mindful of the way that he was likely still a stranger to his son, and didn't want to risk scaring him.
Saul studied the tall stallion in front of his momma with wide brown eyes. He was both exactly how momma described him and nothing like it at the same time. He was so
big. When his momma introduced him, Saul squared his shoulders and lifted his neck proudly. Compared to his sisters he was still small, but he had grown so much since Spring and he desperately wanted the affection of the parent he'd spent his entire life idolizing. His mismatched lips parted to speak the words he'd said so many times in his dreams -
Hello, father - but his courage failed him.
Thankfully, his father was just as kind as his momma and he didn't seem to mind. Solomon stretched forward, and Saul mimicked him until their noses pressed briefly together for an exchange of breaths. And as if that simple touch was enough to break the stranglehold his nerves had on his body, Saul's words found him again and he wiggled excitedly.
"You do smell like pine trees!"
Solomon could not help the surprised chuckle that escaped him, and his smile grew even wider.
"Do I?" At the boy's emphatic nod, Solomon rolled his shoulders and then nodded to affirm his assumption. Of all the things he had expected their son to say at his first meeting this was certainly one of the stranger ones, but he knew that he would think of it - of this moment, with the three of them in the shadow of the Peaks - each time that he exchanged breaths with someone new.
"I suppose I do then."
His gaze flicked back up to Kolfinna briefly as he favored her with a smile, and then slid to the filly beside her that was growing more bold with each passing second. She was so beautiful that it hurt to look at her, like a little sunbeam against the muted autumn colors behind.
"Hello Kalanthia," he echoed as she greeted him, but fell silent as she began to speak.
"It is. And it has pine trees at the bottom," he answers warmly, with a gentle smile for the boy that stood at her side.
As her explanation unfolds, Solomon cannot deny the heat that rises on his cheeks at her sweet outing of Kolfinna and his eyes crinkle with the smile he offers to the brindle mare behind them. There were so many things that he wished he could have done differently for her, but he would be forever glad to have her in his life. Solomon's throat is too tight to allow words and he ducks his gaze briefly down to the boy that stands there beaming at him, before allowing his eyes to meet Kolfinna's again. He didn't know what to say, or how to word his appreciation for, well, for everything.
Not oblivious to the emotionally charged moment, but certainly lacking the nuances of understanding, Saul grew impatient at the obvious delay. He didn't know why his parents had suddenly fallen quiet, but he wanted to know more about his father and about the land he came from. He wiggled against his sister, casting thoughtful frown up at her before deciding to break the silence himself.
"Nuh uh," he said with a pout, tail frisking over his haunches.
"We're her favorite part. Right momma?"
Stallion | Dutch Harness Horse Mutt | Champagne Grullo Tobiano | 17 Hands | The Cove