It had been a few turns of the moon now, since the night she had let Torsten take her beneath him. Since then, she spent most of her days happy for the most part. He kept close to her side, his tentative gaze curious and affectionate. He was her constant guardian, his red skin ever present close to her own. It was comforting, and perhaps a little overwhelming at times. She had become used to being the ghost in the distance. Always apart of Warsaw's clan and yet not. She was the bastard daughter of Nova, the fiery courtesan that had always sought to defy the gray stallion. Of course he had never wronged her, never spoken to her that she could immediately remember but well, she did not miss the hard stares. Was he trying to determine who her sire was? The gods know how she would love to partake of that knowledge herself but well at least with Torsten around she did not feel so alone anymore.

A soft sigh escapes her lips as she glances back at her swelling belly. She had not really known what it was she was signing up for. Grant it that night of desperate lust had been seared into her mind forever. The feel of his strong frame atop her own, his body pressed so close that she wondered if it was then that their hearts had synced as one. It was impossible sure but it was a lovely sentiment. He had taken her quite a few times after that, at least until the scent of estrus fled her skin and even she could not deny the flutter of life she felt stirring within her belly. She had observed other mares in her herd grow pregnant and deliver foals, but never imagined that such a fate would find her. Hunger. Nervousness. Anxiousness. Devotion. Over and over the emotions play through her mind. Would she be any good as a mother? Was Torsten happy? No. She knew he was. His gaze never left her long but still... there was something unnerving in the way he stood so near and hovered as though he feared she might disappear with the next winter storm. She dared not speak these thoughts to her pangere mate though, she did not want to offend him. He was all she had. Now.

Often her thoughts wandered to where mother might be. If she ever found happiness or if her bones too bleached in the sun on some distant island long forgotten from memory. Tuari liked to think Nova still lived, that finally she had found some semblance of happiness but always there was that nagging feeling in the back of her mind.

Dark gaze blinks away the slow falling snowflakes that hover above the frozen hillock. Spring was not far away now. Soon, soon she would have her own foal to frolic and chase across the permafrost. Soon the family that Torsten sought to create with her would become more of a reality than her swollen belly. But at least she was happy. That is what she kept repeating to herself over and over again. She was happy.