fenris

The eyes of the Forest could not be everywhere at once.

Though his first attempt at snatching one of the Forest's mares had ended in failure, Fenris refused to return to the Lagoon empty-handed. With the patience of any predator who knows a meal will eventually wander by, he haunted the shadows beyond sight and scent of the herd. Watching. Waiting. Where one mare had slipped the noose of her stallion's vigilance, another would inevitably wander. And when she came, he would drive her straight into the sea. There would be no offer to come quietly; none of the theatrics that had cost Leon and him the white-blanketed mare. Teeth were more persuasive than tongues, and fear subdued rebellion more effectively than friendship. Words were only wind, tasted in one breath and discarded with the next.

As he shifted his limbs to combat the stiffness settling into his joints, Fenris's dark ears swiveled toward the sound of branches snapping somewhere behind him. His golden eyes swept the herd - by now the individuals were more familiar than most of the faces in the Lagoon - and found that the pale filly with the blood-spattered face was no longer among them. Turning his back on the group, the dark boy headed toward the source of the disturbance, taking care to keep the soft loam beneath his hooves so it would muffle the sound of his approach.

He found her halfway between the clearing and the shore, enfolded in the embrace of a russet mare who wore a half-mask of white. Advancing on the pair with slow, purposeful strides, Fenris's lips peeled back from his lips and he snapped the air near the older mare's shoulder, determined to turn her towards the beach and drive her home to the Lagoon.

colt / yearling / dark bay / friesian mix / 16 hh