Meadow

Force-claiming is not allowed here. This is a peaceful, neutral area meant for socialising.

Live through this ~~lie~~
Posted on April 13, 2020 at 06:45:00 PM by S H A M WARI

Was I left behind?
Tell me, tell me I survived.

The war was over, but Luthien seemed to be stuck at a standstill.

I returned to the Prairie after spending several nights nursing my wounds among the herd in the Thicket. There we grieved for those we had lost and found solace in each other, knowing that this terrible chapter in our history was over. My battered body felt stiff and aching. It was a stark reminder of my age. Despite all I'd hoped to still accomplish, I was no longer young enough to be able to bounce back from my wounds like I once did. I wondered briefly if this limp from an injured hind ankle would ever fully heal.

Slowly, we left our friends in the Forest and the Thicket and returned to a bitterly cold Prairie. The sweeping winds that reveled up and down the terrain's hills felt harsher than they did before. Ghostly dark clouds forbid the sun from shining through, casting the brittle, brown grasses in a gray haze. Despite this, it felt good to be home.

I breathed in the brisk winter air and settled into our usual routine, content to have the likes of Jabari and Ruger back in my keep. The mares and foals returned to their usual routine as well, even if it felt strange to abandon that haunting sense of foreboding. After being on edge, with heightened patrols for so long, it felt so stiffly strange to find a way to return to what had been our normal pace. Maybe we never would. Maybe we'd just fumble along until we felt comfortable with whatever this "new normal" would become.

But old habits were hard to break.

Weeks passed. The raw wounds scabbed over. My ankle stayed fat, but the pulsing pain began to subside. The Prairie remained quiet. I found myself pulled to the shoreline, my mind wandering to the other islands. I wondered how horses outside of Luthien were faring. It was our island, after all, that had been ground zero for the war. Had news spread of its final chapter? Were horses returning to the Crossing Isle? I took one last look across the blustery beach and trotted into the surf. I wanted to see for myself.

I rose from the sea on the Crossing Isle, and moved toward the Falls first. My honey brown eyes were wide and alert as I took in the familiar sights, but a fresh wave of new smells hit me. New horses littered the landscape. I was surprised by what I saw, as if the world kept turning beyond our bubble of conflict strewn among the territories from other islands. Strangers kept coming here. I continued my stiff walk by the Falls and into the Common pasture, before stopping to graze on the bleak offerings winter left behind in the Meadow. I pawed at the fresh snow, reveling some still green chutes and roots. That's when I saw her.

The small dark mare came alive across the open land, settling her startling pace as she rounded the edge of it. I watched her as she continued to walk at a briskly until my curiosity got the best of me. I sounded off a gruff bugle to her, and then ambled closer at a clearly lame and awkward trot. I snorted as I approached, my eyes reeling into tight slits as I winced from the pain. But I bobbed my head nonetheless in greeting. "Hey there." I said, tossing my red mane against my thick neck. "You must be new."

Replies:

saw him riding down the 61 in early July - By FAOLAIN April 13, 2020 at 08:42:15 PM
- Live through this ~~lie~~ - By S H A M WARI April 19, 2020 at 06:32:43 PM
  - you shouldn�t walk where the hemlock grows - By F A O L A I N April 22, 2020 at 06:36:57 PM
    - Live through this ~~lie~~ - By S H A M WARI April 28, 2020 at 05:55:52 PM

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