Was I left behind?
Someone tell me, tell me I survived.
Her call carries through the trees with ease. It reaches me loud and clear. The tone, the shrill shake of it dictating urgency. My green eyes focus in the direction where the call came. I see nothing but the usual calm scene here: tall reeds and the occasional swaying tree. But the Prairie is eerily quiet in the wake of Evaline's call. I waste no time. I urge my heaving red frame forward, my thick pillars for legs consuming the ground underneath me in long, overreaching strides. My hooves strike the earth like dull daggers, beating it, digging into it, as my haunches continue to propel my heaving body forward.
I'm searching for her familiar golden frame in the sea of orange and tan, the reeds rich in color as the sun begins to set at the horizon. I stumble upon Paradiso first. The colt looks to me with a flash of terror in his eyes as he huddles behind the thick trunk of an oak tree. I whicker to him quickly, firey red ear lobes pinned as a silent order is relayed to him to stay put. The hills open up and I am moving with great speed now. My lungs expand and contract, my nostrils flare and roar as the air comes in and out, my fuel for more speed and more power.
By the time I spy her, I see she is not alone. Evaline is standing bold and close to Pagan and my heart sinks. I know why he's here. Clearly I wasn't as clever as I thought if he'd followed me all the way back home. But I don't have time to think about that now. The tri-colored stud is rearing at Evaline, not striking her, but clearly threatening to. A rush of adrenaline washes over me the second I see it. A surge of warmth splinters through my veins, the heat, at its core, coming from deep in my gut. I envision crushing Pagan's skull underneath my flat hooves if I see him come that close to my mother again.
I neigh, a hearty and hoarse call screeching through the sky as I announce my arrival. It's laced with rage, a venom I'm not sure I've ever felt before. My speed doesn't slow even as I approach. Not until I'm between the two do I let up, my body hopping into the air as the momentum slows, and I am standing chest-to-chest with my foe now. I squeal, raising a front leg high to my chest and begin to paw furiously, my thick cranium swinging wildly with teeth barred. I then rear, striking out with every intention to hit him. I rear again and reach farther with my wildly flailing legs again for good measure.
"If you came here for a fight, that's what you'll get."
| Fresian Mutt | 15.3 | Chestnut | Evaline x Rook | Half-brother to Kasabian, Vita Nova | Vinyl | Photo © kimerleecury |