The snow mare let her head drop in the hopes of catching a few z’s . Her body and soul were aching but the cold of the stone wall against her battered hips was beginning to help her mend. The image of her filly sleeping peacefully in front of her eyes fluttered with her eyelashes as her exhaustion began to set in. Winter sighed and snuffled her nose in the soft baby coat of her daughter; she hummed a soft melody to her as they both enjoyed some well-deserved sleep.

Hooves on stone jolted Winter out of her nap, snapping her ears back against her head . The gold mare whipped her head around and bared her teeth at the intruder, her eyes still glassy. If its that no good roan… A flicker of recognition danced behind blue orbs. She remembered this mare, she was the one from the beach with the colt. The mare let her lips close but didn’t bring her ears up. The interaction between the small group had deeply troubled the gold. Winter often looked back on it to remind herself to be less abrasive. The mare nodded her head for the dark horse to come closer and offered her a soft nicker of greeting. She could feel the dried sweat making her fur crunchy with every movement making her stomach roll. The gold looked the mare over discreetly, she was part of the herd and had been a ghost so a quick to check if she were sound and whole. Blue orbs turned back to the paint filly at her feet a stich of pride swelling in her breast. “I thought that you had left but im glad to see you are still around.” Winter ignored her question, she really didn’t want to think about how she was feeling. The pain had subside to a constant throbbing reminder to stay still. The golden mare desperately wanted to wash of the caked blood and dirt from her tail and the sweat from her pelt. A frown pulled down at her mouth. She was unsure of how long she would need to stay in her dwelling. Winters legs trembled slightly from weariness but she feared getting down would make her unable to stand again. Enough!

The alpha turned her head to look at Briar, “Would you mind coming up here so I can see you face to face?” She offered her a warm smile, she was genuinely glad of her company at the moment. Winter was curious as to how the mare had known where to find her as she had thought herself pretty well hidden. The others had found her so it was still good enough for her. The gold dropped her head and nosed the foal awake and helped her up onto her feet. She chuckled at the glare the white faced filly turned on her. “I suppose she got that sweet nature from me.”





"Speech looks like this."