a new world hangs outside the window
beautiful and strange
it must be I've fallen awake
I must be
At first, the arrangement Wasp had struck with this stallion seemed harmless. They were each getting something out of it, and Wasp was pleased with her ability to negotiate (even if she hadn't really bartered with the stud at all). She galloped gleefully after the painted stallion with a smile plastered across her dark lips, and with her thick mane lapping against her well-defined neck. But as they strode further and further away from the falls, she couldn't help but feel this creeping feeling take over. All of a sudden she was second guessing her decision to strike a deal with this stranger, and to follow him so casually farther away from her home, and into a terrain she did not know.
Thus far, Ruger showed no inherent signs of being dangerous. But Wasp had been taught better. Macabre was quite clear about the tricks stallions' used to steal away mares, especially young ones. Wasp was still very much just a filly, too young to be of much use to any full grown stallion, but still. Her mother's words burned in her ears the further and further away they got from the path that lead back to the Peak.
She took more careful steps through the brush and trees as Ruger seemed to veer off onto his own path toward the meadow. Her heart was beating so fast now with anxiety that it was the only thing she could hear in her ears. The young filly snorted once and hardened her features in an effort to get a hold of herself. If Ruger did indeed try any funny business, she was pretty fast. She made mental note of all the nooks and turns they took down the short path from here on out.
She slowed her pace and eventually stopped as the trees gave way to a clearing. She watched Ruger galevant out into the open field of tall grass with his tail high in a big, lofty trot. She snorted once at his display, but a rueful smile found her way across her lips. He certainly seemed to be having a good time. Perhaps she should loosen up a little....
Wasp took off at a fast three-beat canter and bucked in circles around the stallion, whinnying twice wildly. The tall grass seemed to expend for as far as the eye could see, almost as it was an ocean. She stopped only after a good minute of bucking and playing, the sides of her dark barrel rising and falling as she quickly tried to catch her breath. Wasp dropped her head and breathed in the scent of the earth here, before parting her lips and tearing at some of the blades of grass. Wasp still nursed from her mother upon occasion, but was now dabbling with the grass too. The blades here seemed sweeter than back on the Peak.
"So why do you want to go to the Peak so bad anyway?" She blurted out, just barely after swallowing her mouthful. "You know we don't like stallions there."
W A S P