The girl had come easily enough. In the middle of the night, Sehrish had found herself cowering away in the corners of the forest, stuck to the ground and writhing unhappily. She wasn't sure how long it had taken, but the morning sky was bleeding orange and red by the time she was standing next to her dark child. For a while, the grey mare was confused and enthralled, knowing that the girl was all hers and something that would last forever. With intricate lines on her face and a body that was dark as night, Sehrish thought she was beautiful and exotic, looking nothing like herself or Indian Hemp.

The whole thing was a little overwhelming, because the moment the filly started rooting around for her first meal, reality set in and washed across the desert mare. Spring was here and she was obligated to care for and nurse this small bundle of life. She suddenly became aware of all the dangerous things that could be lurking in the trees, and while the dark skinned girl fed quietly beneath her, Sehrish found no rest. Ears flicking and eyes darting, she was paranoid of every shadow and every snapping twig. Even the soft sound of dew dripping from leaf to ground was enough to set the grey mare on edge.

Finally, as the girl finished her first meal, the new mother found enough reason to move. They would go into the belly of the forest in search of the others, to find safety and security in numbers, and perhaps to let Indian Hemp pour over their new daughter. While she walked, she pondered over a name for the girl, knowing that she could not continue to refer to her as 'The Girl' in front of the others, and knowing that the other new mothers would have, no doubt, named their babies the moment they lay eyes on them.

For a while they walked, carefully navigating the trees and pausing whenever the dark skinned filly seemed to stumble over her own legs or find an obstacle too large to conquer. It was near midday by the time the pair joined the edges of the herd, standing hesitantly to the side, Sehrish looks down to her white-faced daughter who peered curiously out at the group of horses between her mother's pale legs.