I would honestly love you now,
But I would lovingly let you down.
The cooler the weather got, the better Jabari began to feel. The moisture seemingly lifted from the otherwise humid Lagoon with the change in the seasons. And for that, the painted son of the Prairie was grateful. His home on Luthien was not nearly as wet nor as humid as this place, and within just a few weeks, the bitter land was beginning to take a toll on him. His otherwise hard and chipped hooves had softened to the point of creating painful soles and deep abscesses. He hobbled around on his tender feet, feeling more isolated than ever by his mobility. But the days passed, and he was beginning to get stronger again.
On this particular day, Jabari crossed the Lagoon's borders without alerting Cullen or his brothers - a no-no, as Jabari had been told. There was no time for galavanting these days. Not with a war upon them. But Jabari was feeling stifled, suffocated even, by the mindless day in, day out activity or lack thereof in the Lagoon. Most of Cullen's recruits just sulked around, tormenting the poor Peak mares they'd taken captive recently. They seemed lazy, both in mind and body. Overall, Jabari was underwhelmed by their lifestyle.
He just needed a breathe of fresh air. So he walked briskly, despite the radiating pain in his soft hooves, down the rocky trail toward the falls. He'd explored so little since he was sent here. Jabari couldn't recall ever seeing the falls before in his lifetime. He stood cooly at the pool's edge, his brilliant blue eyes trained up on the cascading water that pummeled down from the rocks. It was quite a sight - no wonder so many of the islanders talked about it in the way they did.
But his awestruck moment was short lived. Immediately, Jabari thought about Petal. She was the first he always thought of. Petal would like it here. His mind mused. But then that sour pitting in his stomach would return, and the painted stallion would feel flushed with guilt. He wondered if this feeling would ever leave him, or if he'd be stuck feeling this awful forever.
The stallion breathed another heaving sigh and lowered his head to drink from the cool waters of the pool. As he did so, he caught the faint words of another, barely audible over the thundering sound of the falls around them. One copper-colored ear lobe twitched and then the other, before he spied the roan mare not far down the bank from where he stood. Jabari continued to drink his fill while watching her, only emitting a short but friendly whinny to her once he'd raised his head from the bank. "Hello."
Stallion | Brienne x Shamwari | Chesnut Overo | 15.2 h| Photo © Carina Mailwald | © Vinyl |
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