“Be a little more careful on the path down, Filumena.” Oswin gently scolded her daughter after Filumena had kicked her dark red back legs out and gone trotting quite bouncily down the path. Fear gripped Oswin, just imagining her long-legged daughter tripping and tumbling herself down the cliff side. It was good to see her in such high spirits, but the girl needed to learn to be less careless.

Oswin suddenly felt like she understood even a fraction of what her mother had gone through with raising her. Oswin had been the herd terror and more headstrong than she’d had any right. Dock, introverted and fearful since birth, had never quite understood her much braver daughter. “That must’ve come from your father.” She had remembered her mother saying in that warm way she had any time she talked about Valentine. No matter how many years they’d been together he had always remained the steadfast love of her life.

Oswin herself had not experienced that and, lately, there was a lot of internal conflict about her current choice in lovers.

Filumena skittered to a stop on the path up ahead, sending little pebbles skittering down. Her ears flicked and her head bobbed and weaved a little in the air as she watched the strange mare down the way. Oswin couldn’t see her yet with the way the Peak path turned, but she watched her daughter curiously and beckoned her with a gentle nicker.

Filumena flicked her tail and darted back to her mother, whispering, “Mama there’s a strange mare,” at her as she came bounding close and tucked up against her mothers painted side. Oswin looked curiously down the way and started forward to see this stranger for herself.

“Hello,” she greeted, “I’m Oswin, Prime Minister of the Peak.” For how long? Would her sisters vote to have her vacate her seat next season? Oswin put it aside and smiled at the mare. “What brings you to the home of my sisters?”

Filumena, hanging back at her mothers hip, watched the blue roan mare with great interest. By now she knew the horses of the Peak as her mother kept her safely tucked in their borders, but she’d yet to see a horse from beyond them.

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.