I would honestly love you now,
But I would lovingly let you down.
With her permission, the painted stallion steps forward, their bodies brushing gently against each other in the small cleared path, as he takes the lead. His steps are easy and methodical over the boulders and hardy brush. But his muscles burn under his brown and white hide as they propelled him up the incline. The moved silently for several minutes, Jabari pausing every so often and casting one blue eye back to make sure she was still following. Every time, he was surprised to see her hot on his heels, her pace brisk in the wake of his own.
Eventually the path gives way to flatter land, the earth hard under their hooves. Jabari's pink nostrils flare as he sucks in the salty, crisp air at this elevation, and skirts to one side to allow Reef to move alongside him. "Almost there." He offers, before picking up the pace again, this time a bit more leisurely. The hard earth transforms into harder bare rock, as the boulder's varied face juts out over the cliff, offering quite the view of the beach below and vast ocean ahead. The stallion hangs back, allowing the mare to step forward first and take it all in. Only then does he step up to match her.
A chestnut ear swivels in her direction when she speaks next and instinctively, his blue-eyed gaze travels up to the clouds. "They are spectacular." He offers, his brown tail drifting between two white hind limbs in the breeze. "Almost like a dream." Atlantis was otherworldly in its own right, so strange and exotic compared to Luthien, his true home. While he harbored a lot of ill will for this place, thanks to the silver-bay stallion living next door and his captive time spent in Paradise, there was something refreshing and different about the Ridge. Maybe it was the rocks.
His gaze shifts to peer down at the mighty boulders that littered the beach. Many were well worn, taking warped shapes over time from the constant beating against the surf. "I think you're right." He offers in agreement. But he thinks hard on this for a minute more.
Stallion | Brienne x Shamwari | Chesnut Overo | 15.2 h| Photo © Carina Mailwald | © Vinyl |
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