Synder’s confidence had been short-lived.

For a while the dark dappled mare had found a bit of happiness in her life in the Lagoon. She had learned to both avoid the stallions and get along with some of the worst of them (Felony, specifically). Both of these she considered great life skills and was relieved to know them, but she didn’t realize there was more to Lagoon life than just surviving the social structures. Now, with winter in full swing, she was surviving for two.

Unlike her sister, Synder knew the basics of pregnancy. She didn’t know when or how she was going to push this thing out of her, but she knew very well what it was and it made her nervous. She was terrified of making a mistake, of somehow killing the child and having to face Felony with its blood on her hands, but she was also determined to tough this out. She spent her time digging through the snow for food or breaking the ice on pools and puddles for water. The results of her efforts battled fiercely with the effects of her stress; she almost always looked tired and strained, and her joints swelled angrily and ached often, but her ribs did not show and her coat remained thick and fuzzy.

Eating was easy enough, but sleep was a trickier business and Synder woke easily to almost any stimulus. Footsteps of any animal were the most common, but it was the wind that woke her now. Curious, she peered up through the canopy at the dark sky, but it was impossible to tell whether the sun was buried in clouds or if it was simply night. With creaking joints, she made her way toward the shore where there would be no canopy in her way.

She didn’t notice Mason’s painted figure until she ran into it upon losing her balance mid-step across the rocks. With a surprised snort Synder lurched backward, scrambling a bit for purchase on the damp stones. She found her balance a moment later and let her head drop, submissive and embarrassed, and peeked up through her forelock to find that she recognized the unfortunate individual she had just bulldozed.

Lifting her head again, Synder stretched her neck to exchange breaths with the stallion, both in greeting and as an apology for running him over. It was, after all, a bit difficult to haul all this extra bulk around after spending most of her life being rather lightweight.