The steely spotted mare watched as the sun began to rise on the horizon, casting the vast ocean before her in brilliant pink and orange hues. She sighed deeply as the bright, boiling mass made its slow ascent into the sky, plumes of rich carbon dioxide evaporating from her whiskered nostrils with every exhale. Winter was on its way out on the island of Tinuvel, and Vita Nova couldn't be more happy to see it go.
Vita Nova was miserable. She was obese - the sides of her barrel were swollen and painful. Vita Nova was nearing the end of her third pregnancy, but she'd never experienced one quite like this. Her legs were constantly swollen, sore from the warm fluid that gathered there and puffed out, if she stood in one position for too long. Nor had she ever felt this "big" before. She'd birthed two fillies from relatively impressive statured stallions. Fallo was nearly three times her size, as a draft-bred brute. So she had no idea what to expect from this bizarre and unnerving pregnancy. She only knew that Warsaw would expect her to deliver -seriously - especially if she wanted to keep a stronghold on her lead mare title. Silently, the mare hoped for a colt.
With the morning glow came a brief reprieve from the island's frigid temperatures. She basked in the rays as they illuminated and warmed her spotted coat. But still she stood, along the pebble beach of the shoreline of the Inlet, her striking blue eyes transfixed on the dark, choppy waves. Even in the Desert, where she so often felt abandoned and depressed, the sea brought her clarity and peace. The trend seemed to continue here on Tinuvel.
Tensions lately between her family and Warsaw had kept her on edge. As a way to blow off steam, the mare regularly made trips to the Bay to visit her daughter. She longed for the filly's companionship, even if Tavas was nearly grown now, and part of a new herd. The more she visited, the less Tavas seemed interested in keeping in touch with her mother. This realization was painful of course, but for multiple reasons. It made Vita Nova think about all the times she cast her own mother aside, even when Evaline was reaching out to help. It's funny, she thought with a short snort, how life was seemingly so cyclical.
She assumed today would lead to another trek across Tinuvel to see her stony, irritable daughter when the contractions kicked in. The first few hours were painful, but she managed through. Then they came at her with a viciousness she never would have predicted. The spotted mare writhed in pain, from her position on the hard, cold earth's floor. Despite the early spring season and lingering cooler temperatures, sweat lathered in her sooty colored body. She cried out in pain by herself for hours until not one, but two, bony bodies emerged from hers.
She was astonished to see the two mismatched colts, breathing evenly and lifting their damp heads from the ground. They were healthy. "Thank God." She muttered under her breath, to whatever being out there gifted her this kind of reprieve. Not only had she given Warsaw one male heir, but two. And two strong, resilient ones.
The mare stayed in their quiet, secluded part of the woods not far from the shoreline for several days. Only once she'd regained her strength, and her two colts began to nurse evenly and consistently, did she emerge to show them off to their sire and the rest of the herd.
Mare | Evaline x Valentine | Smoky Back Splash | 15 hh | © Vinyl |
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