Valentine heard the small, unfamiliar voice from the spot he had chosen to graze a little further up the river than normal. His dark-tipped ears flicked curiously atop his head, and he glanced back towards the herd a way behind him, as if convinced for a moment that the sound must have come from them. But it hadn’t, of course – he knew each of his mares’ voices by ear and all of the children too – they simply remained grazing and playing contentedly downstream.

His curiosity piqued, Valentine turned his curiosity ahead of himself and began to meander slowly up the river, heading towards the shore of Luthien. It didn’t take him long, once the ground began to slope gently downwards and the grasses gave way to the horizon again, to find the owner of the voice.

He had a visitor.

For a moment he frowned, but it only took a few seconds for his dark eyes to drink in the feminine edge to her frame and for his nostrils to catch her sweet scent on the breeze. His visitor was a female, and thus he could only assume she was not here to try and harm or bother his family. Her body was gold and white, glimmering prettily in the sun, and she stood perfectly still, managing to appear somehow both determined and hesitant at the same time.

Brightened by this discovery, a smile crept along his pink-white lips and he closed the distance between them, a confident sway in his lazy steps.

“Hello beautiful,” he greeted her warmly, an edge of playfulness to the words that he hoped might excuse him any punishment if this stranger were not the kind to appreciate flattery.

He paused before her, tossing his head to free his vision of a lock of inky-black hair.

“What brings you to the Prairie, stranger?” he asked, tilting his head curiously as he waited with interest to judge her response.

VALENTINE
you bleed just to know you’re alive