If he had been in any better shape, he may have laughed at the red and white figure’s almost prancing in place. He’s too young to understand deep emotions, so while he knows fear, he has no clue about panic.

He flinches more fully as the other makes that loud noise again, this time much closer to little gold ears that aren’t used to it. He doesn’t like how the feeling makes his heart skip, but he calms as the bigger white muzzle reaches down to his again. He reaches out as he had before, though his nose only gets as far as the big one’s whiskers before they start tickling his sensitive nostrils and making his face twitch.

He pulls back at the odd sensation, but the stranger is already moving. He thinks for a moment that he’s being left on his own again and cranes his head to keep the stranger in his sights as long as possible. He finally has to give up when he can feel the big body looming over his back. He feels a slight internal tugging - an unrealized, underdeveloped flight instinct.

The colt understands the question as a question and two words stick out at him. Get up. He’s heard those words before; the pale figure that had stood alongside the two other gold ones had said it several times, both in regards to him and the biggest figure that had laid back down and stopped moving.

His brain works to put an action to the words, trying to clear the fog that his long-standing hunger has put over his brain. His tiny brow furrows and figures that if the gold and cream pair had so objected to the biggest one lying down, then perhaps to get up means the opposite of that.

Feeling the red and white one nosing at his rump further strengthens his newfound understanding, so he tries to rise as he had just before his first and only meal. He tries to unfold his limbs, his weakness making them tremble. His back legs straighten first, leaving his hindquarters sticking up in the air as he grunts with the effort it takes to make his front end catch up.

He finally levels out, body shaking and chest heaving with exertion. He’s too breathless to release a sound of triumph but he manages a half grin, though the bigger one behind him won’t be able to see it. Even with him standing, the question still remains: now what?