and I am more than these bones
I feel love, I feel alone

Days passed. Oswin grew more restless in what she began to view as a prison sentence, stuck to the boundaries of the Prairie with no permission to leave; Calder grew older, developed a personality, and stuck close to his mother’s side; Dock carried on, in love with Valentine, at peace in the Prairie, and every day the memory of the palomino-flecked young stallion who stormed their home was further and further away. Thoughts of her first child had dimmed so much now that her life was filled with two children that Dock hardly thought of him at all. Most would say that wasn’t a way to face her troubles, but Dock didn’t know how to do it otherwise. This was her way of coping; what she didn’t think about could not upset her.

Valentine had protected her; Nephilim had not returned.

The herd, she realized, was growing smaller. Dock worried, and then felt surprise that she worried. She had not expected to grow close to anyone other than her children and Valentine but, somehow, over the course of time spent in the Prairie, she had.

“Mama,” came Calder’s soft boyish whisper (he was nearly a year now, how time flew) and Dock flicked her ears, turning her blues to him and then to the direction which he watched. Evaline. She remembered the mare well. Headstrong and prideful, the palomino mare was like many who’d once bossed Dock’s mother around when Dock was but a foal. However, Evaline had also once stepped in to protect her, when the thin black stallion had come to Luthien and Dock had been the first to cross his path.

She whinnied softly to her, welcoming her back, and began to move forward to meet her. Dock watched her warily, waiting for any sign of aggression (though she had no rightful reason to expect it) while Calder tailed behind her, ears forward and eyes wary on the stranger. “Evaline,” Dock greeted as she drew up short, studying the mare for a moment, “welcome home.”

dock
six year old 15.0hh cremello arabian crossbred mare
of the prairie, mother of nephilim, oswin, and calder