Wounds on her body had healed. Bruises and swelling had gone down. From the outside looking in, she was a lovely dappled blue, her coat shining in the gently falling snow. Tall, her head was low, resting against her daughter’s painted body. The sides of the thoroughbred heaved, her stomach protruding more than most would have considered normal. It was no longer deniable. She was pregnant from the day she had been chased into the Lagoon. Once she was no longer able to hide the fact she had obsessively avoided any interaction with other equines.

Fear drove her into the shadows of the trees in the fall. In the winter she was constantly moving, looking in vain for any sort of cover that could hide her growing body. It did not help that her daughter did not know what was going on and pleaded with her to explore. Or worse, find Ruger. Zimri’s heart broke with each request Rachanna uttered and she hushed her with gentle caresses over her dark face. There was only one stallion in the Lagoon that she dreaded running into more than Ruger. It was Ruger’s father. The father of the child growing in her.

Zimri’s heart clenched at the thought. Her shaking body obvious by the shaking plumes of breath that came from her nose. Eyes widened in self-imposed fear. All her life she had been running. Running from the hooves of those who had been trying to chase her from their herd, then running to what she thought was the care and comfort Ruger gave her. Now she wanted to run from everything, but was trapped in the one place that was the most dangerous for her.

“We can stay here for a little while.” She sighed softly to Rachanna. They had come to a clearing that showed no signs of others crossing it. The snow remained untouched and all scents had grown stale. Zimri took a deep breath and stepped from the thicket, nudging snow to the side to graze on what she could find. Rachanna, on the other hand, looked at her mother in confusion. She snorted softly and set to investigating their surroundings, trying to find any clue as to where her father would be, or the reasons behind her mother’s strange behavior.