Sköll had entered the water with reluctance – both due to the tiring prospect of another swim and because he knew there would be no other foals to play with when he got home. Vargr had never been any fun but Gravewolf would often join in his games of tag and hide and seek and both of the yearlings had sparred with him from time to time. Now he would be alone, well, apart from the adults but adult were boring.
As he swam, he planned how he would sneak away to the prairie. Perhaps he would find others his age there.
Jörmungandr was keen to get back to the herd as soon as possible and had forcibly pushed her son into the surf to get him moving. Once they were in the ocean, however, she adopted a leisurely pace while Sköll’s young legs worked in overdrive to get him out of the water as soon as physically possible. As she watched his dark ears bobbing up and down, she wondered why none of her children had inherited her love of swimming.
As Luthien’s shore came into view, the buckskin mare was quick to spot two unfamiliar coloured equine on the beach. While it was not outside the realm of possibility that Olaf or Bjorn might have brought new mares home, it was highly unusual that those two would not be with the rest of the herd. She kicked up her speed a notch and her ears strained forward to try and hear what the pair might be saying but they were too far away and almost certainly drowned out by the sound of the waves that surrounded her. Her jaw tightened and clenched when it became apparent that one of the pair was a stallion – was he here to try and drive Olaf out so that he and his mare could have the forest? She doubted he could pull off such a feat, but the thought of him trying made her blood start to boil.
Somehow, Sköll managed to maintain the distance between himself and his mother and he was the first to emerge from the jaws of the ocean. He had been so focused on one particular spot on the shore, that he only noticed the trio as his small hooves found sand and pebbles below the water. At first he was confused, but that did not halt his stride. His odd eyes danced over each of their bodies; the stallion first, then the mare and then settled on the foal. He was younger than Sköll for sure, but he could definitely suffice as a new playmate – well, he could if he stopped shaking so much.
The exhaustion of the swim was quickly forgotten as he trotted out of the water, gave a quick shake and began to move in the trios direction. His damp, bi-colour mane stuck out haphazardly while his ink dipped tail clung about his legs; how irritating, he thought, as he tried to flick the water off while maintaining a brisk trot. Unfortunately, it didn’t work so well and the force of his tail flick send him stumbling in the same direction. Luckily, he remained upright and carried on his approach as if nothing had happened. Sköll had not learned to fear strangers yet and it was unclear if he ever would
Jörmungandr was not far behind her son and emerged from the surf with pinned ears and a thirst for answers – specifically what had brought the pair here and what their intentions were. Her gaze flickered briefly over Sköll’s white back and she cursed the boy for not being more cautious. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t told him the dangers of approaching strangers, especially mature stallions, but apparently it had fallen on deaf ears.
By the time they had covered the short distance between them, the buckskin mare had overtaken her son and angled herself in front of him as she came to a halt. Sköll’s pink muzzle impacted with her side (seemingly unnoticed by Jörmungandr) and he gave a muted squeal in protest, which was drowned out by the sound of his mother’s voice. ”What is your business here?” she demanded, ears flicked back though not quite pinned and blue eyes piercing into the stallion as she spoke. Skoll, meanwhile, dipped his head down to peer at the other colt from below his mother’s belly. It was at that moment, Jörmungandr noticed the child between the silver haired stallion and the blue mare for the first time.
Her hard stance faltered.
Jörmungandr |XX | Mutt | Buckskin | Ee/Aa/nCr | 16.0hh | Olaf x Chianti
Sköll | XY | Mutt | Black Tobiano | EE/aa/nT | 16.0hh | Felony x Jörmungandr
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