I DON'T WORRY, WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

Talya may have been nearing three at the same time her daughter would see her first birthday, but mentally… she may as well have been younger. And likely always would be. Talya whined; full on, threw her head upward, nose sticking in the air, and groaned very loudly in complaint at Evaline’s advice. When her head dipped level again her ears flicked out at either side, tail twitching over her hind. “Achoo is a good name!” Talya complained. “That’s the noise she makes all the time! It’ll be the easiest for anyone to remember.”

Achoo sniffed, but her nose was already stuffed. “Ish okay,” she muttered in her nasally tone, twisting her head to nibble a particularly uncomfortably itch (she was prone to hives, though they didn’t seem as bad in autumn as they had in summer). “Mama’s right,” Achoo agreed, because she didn’t have the forthright intelligence and life lived to understand Achoo was not actually a very nice name.

Talya stood and tilted her head at her daughter, gesturing toward her flank. She might have threw a vocal tantrum at Evaline’s stern order, but she still followed through.

Achoo peeled herself from her grandmother with a little smile, her eyes red-rimmed and watery, and made for her mothers side, poking along with her nose until she dipped under and latched onto one of Talya’s swollen teats. Her dark little tail twitched back and forth, something that had always made Talya giggle… only this time she wasn’t giggling.

“I told the other one to name her.” She lied. Mamapapa had been in an absolute rage to learn a stallion had mounted his daughter when she’d told him something funny was happening to her tummy, so Talya didn’t really like to… talk about that. Talya didn’t remember his name… maybe he’d told it to her, but she couldn’t remember. It just became easier to call him “the other one” after awhile. Thankfully there were no other families or male-dominant figures in the Forest to confuse Achoo… so she didn’t exactly get it when Talya said “the other one.” Achoo just accepted it as another weird thing her mother said and they went on from there.

“The other one will maybe give her another name.” Talya said with a definitive nod, and turned to look at her daughter as Achoo pulled away from the teat, licking at the frothy milk on her chin and gasping for air – she couldn’t really breath through her nose what with all the snot, so holding her breath to drink made it so she couldn’t drink as much as other foals at any one time. Talya tilted her head, watching her daughter for a second, and then snickered. “You’ve totally got a milk mustache going on Achoo.”

Achoo blinked her watery eyes and looked from her mother to her grandmother. “Huh?”