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

Once, Evaline would have had her cowering visibly. Dock wouldn’t have been able to find her voice, might have trembled, and might have shied away. The bold palomino was everything that Dock had never been; everything that those who’d bullied her and her mother had been. But years passed with Valentine, two children and love had slowly began to sculpt her into something different. A friendship found with Onawa’ changed her too, began to show her that she could develop kinship with the mares of the Prairie and that she didn’t have to be so stubborn as to think they may replace the memory of the sisters she’d lost.

Dock’s head lifted rather than dipping down. Inside she felt a quiver of nervous fright, that first instinct to back down and subdue, but she stubbornly pushed against it. Sometime certainly had passed, hadn’t it? But Dock didn’t speak to it, only accepted the comment with quiet acceptance. Calder lurked nervously at her hind, clearly deciding the best place for him would be with his mother between him and a stranger, mare or no. It appeared her white and gold son had, unfortunately, inherited her more nervous behaviorisms. Even nearing a year, as he was, he still seemed to prefer to spend more of his time with Dock than with others of the herd. Oswin was no help; the girl was ever the wild child and loved nothing more than to tease her brother.

Gossip? Immediately she thought of a year before, when Nephilim had come to the Prairie, when she’d fought him and when Valentine and Onawa’ had stormed in to drive him and the yearling colt he’d come with from their land. That would have been an event Evaline might have liked to be present for, but Dock did not like to speak of it. It brought up too many complicated memories.

“It’s been quiet here.” It was half-true, if not for that event. “I’m afraid there hasn’t been much to miss. A stallion tried to raid away Sicily and her daughter, but that was almost a year ago and Valentine drove him away before damage could be done.”

Dock paused for a beat. She wondered… she always wondered. “And you?”

Once, she’d left the islands. One sister’s death and another’s depression had pushed her away.

Valentine would be happy to see Evaline return, she thought. A soft pang of envy bit at her heart but she snuffed it, quickly. It wouldn’t do to act like that, not with the man that Valentine was. He had a heart so big, he cared so much, it would be greedy of her to want it all for her own.

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