PERSEPHONE

Persephone watched her intruder carefully, eyeing him for his reaction by which she could judge his intentions. After a moment where he seemed to be frozen, he nickered, and then offered his nose to exchange breaths as he introduced himself. Persephone considered him for a moment, but if he were here to make trouble he was certainly going about it in an odd way, and so she had to assume, for now at least, that he was harmful.

Stiffly, she outstretched her own muzzle and shared his breath, committing the stranger’s scent to memory, and then his name. Shamwari. Pulling her head back, she studied his face as he explained himself further. So this was her neighbour then, the man who owned the grasslands on the other side of the Forest, which she had yet to explore.

“I am Persephone,” she replied simply, mulling the information he had given her over in her head. “So we are neighbours, then. The Forest is mine now, I don’t know who your friends are but they are long gone from here – the place was deserted when I found it.”

So Shamwari had been friends with the last leader of this territory – that seemed to suggest that the herds here got along and cooperated, or at least that they were capable of such a thing. Where Persephone came from, the different herds tended to keep out of each other’s way for the most part, but perhaps this could be useful to her, so long as they didn’t try to interfere too much.

“I trust you aren’t here to cause trouble, then,” she continued. “Perhaps we can be new friends.”

all of your demons will wither away

mixed, bay varnish roan blanket, 14.3hh