Meadow

Rivaini

Like the season that currently gripped the Crossing in its cold fist, solitude was a novelty to the copper-and-cream mare. And as with the winter, though Rivaini had hated the concept at first, she was beginning to adapt to the stark contrast it painted in comparison to her previous life - and even learning to enjoy it. She had loved Iscariot, she had. But caring for her brother had felt like a full-time responsibility, and the silver bay never had the chance to be herself like this before. It was liberating to be free from the concern that had always gnawed at the edges of her thoughts, leaving Rivaini feeling raw and ragged. For the first time in her five years, the Andalusian mare felt unfettered and truly at ease.

Of course, a little worry in this situation might have been prudent.

She had just settled into a rhythm - grab, chew whilst seeking another choice mouthful, grab again - when the wind abruptly picked up, whipping the near-white strands of Rivaini's mane across her face. With a chastening snort, the auburn mare lifted her head, arching an elegantly-sculpted neck to gaze in the direction of the frigid gust's source. It was then that she first glimpsed the spotted creature who stood at the edge of the woods, the tendrils of his dark hair likewise tousled by the wind. Despite the curtain it provided to conceal his features, however, Rivaini felt a cold certainty that the stallion was watching her - and wondered at his motivations. Though she had been fortunate in her first encounter on the island, the rusty-coated immigrant was wise enough to know that not everyone's intentions were pure.

Lowering her head in a quick gesture made jerky and wooden with apprehension, Rivaini affected not to have seen the stranger. She fell back to her grazing with exaggerated casualness, though her hunger - and her stomach - seemed to have vanished during the preceding moments. And despite her determination to appear unaware of the potential threat that she faced, the mare's thick, silvery tail began to twist through the air in an agitated dance. Through the sound of her heartbeat thrumming in her ears, Rivaini heard a second rhythm - the thud of heavy hooves on the hard, frozen ground. Casting her pale eyes in the direction she'd seen the colorful creature, the silver bay witnessed his approach, her teeth clipping together on the emptiness of the cold air.

In an effort to calm the frantic thrashing of her heart, Rivaini counted its beats in the silence of her thoughts as she waited. In the last moments before the stranger drew near, she did drag her head upright, standing to face him in the erect - and tense - posture that wild creatures assumed when they greeted one another. The mare of Andalusian blood then froze as if her figure had been carved from stone, save the quivering of nostrils and the faint tremor that shook her rusty coat. Beneath the deceptive front of her stillness, however, every muscle was as taut as a bird's in the instant before they took wing.

It a’int safe to be standing square in the middle of a field with this weather brewin. You best be gettin’ back somewhere safe.

Rivaini didn't know what she had been anticipating, but it wasn't a rough, gritty voice whose hard edges were nevertheless softened by words of concern. For a half-dozen breaths she could only gape at the stallion like some dumb fish that had washed up on the shore, and now lay slowly suffocating in the sand. Then the tension drained from her reddish coat in a final shudder, and she heard herself speaking in a detached, calm voice that couldn't possibly be her own. "I don't have anywhere else to go." She supposed that she could return to the thicket, but a single glance - now that Rivaini was truly paying attention - told her that it was unlikely to provide sufficient shelter from the weather her spotted companion sought to warn her of. Granted, her experience with winter storms was non-existent, but Rivaini didn't need to be a native to understand that a sky that turbulent never carried good tidings.

Panic began to assert itself, and the mare's creamy tail resumed its restless lashing. After all her self-assurance, Rivaini was just beginning to understand just how raw and untested she truly was. She had thought herself capable and clever, but the world outside her home had proven otherwise. In a frustrating flash of insight, Rivaini realized that she was just as vulnerable and reliant as her brother had been - she, who had once thought herself invulnerable.

mare / five / silver bay tobiano / andalusian mix / 15.3hh