After a bout of excitement and exhaustion that resulted in an outburst of emotion from her daughter, Vita Nova had finally coaxed the brindled filly into nursing and then lying in a defeated clump in the cool grass near the treeline. While her daughter rested, the poor thing's mind frazzled by so many new and terrifying experiences all at once since they left Tinuvel, Nova tried best to calm her own thoughts. She did so by grazing, her teeth tearing at the lush summer offerings in the meadow while keeping a watchful eye on dozing Nyah. Every so often the smokey-colored mare would raise her petite head and gaze out across what was a mostly empty terrain and sigh deeply. In her mind she kept repeating the same thing over and over again: everything is going to be fine. We're OK. It's all going to be alright....
That's what she told herself after Nephilim disappeared, when she was a young, love-struck filly who followed the first handsome stallion she saw so willy-nilly. That's what she told herself after she met Koray in this very same place, desperate for a home and some kind of attention from anyone, even if the stallion's stony demeanor gave her brief pause. Shouldn't I know better by now? She questioned herself. The mare's heart ached for home, for the comforts of the Prairie and the shield of Shamwari and Evaline. This grown up stuff was so much harder on your own. Why she ever wanted to be away from her family in the first place, she did not know.
So when an unfamiliar mare begins her slow approach toward them, Nova watches her curiously, her guard up as she stepped closer to her sleeping daughter. Nova's steely-colored ears were pricked forward at attention and her head was held high over her withers. Her icy blue eyes studied the mare coming toward her, who at first glance, reminded her a lot of her mother. Maybe it was the slow, slightly stiff way in which the seasoned mare walked toward them. Or maybe it was the kindness behind her eye that one would only recognize in another mother. But as Freya drew closer, Nova began to relax, allowing the stiff muscles in her back and neck to loosen.
Nova waited for a long moment before answering, considering the mare's peculiar question. After a low sigh Nova mustered a sheepish grin and flicked her grey tail over her hocks. "Hi Freya, I'm Vita Nova." She said cheerily. "This is my daughter, Nyah." She added, craning her head to one side to spy the small frame of the sleeping filly lying quietly at the base of a tree. "Sorry, she's a bit winded from our swim. We just came from Tinuvel, the Inlet, specifically. Perhaps that's what you recognize?" Nova studied her now, gauging the mare's reaction. She couldn't smell a lick of the islands on her, well, nothing beyond the common isle. It seemed strange for a newcomer to find some sort of familiarity so quickly here.
4 | Mare | Evaline x Valentine | Smoky Back Splash | 15 hh | © Vinyl |
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