Falls

He wouldn't be on his way to the mainland if it wasn't for his mother. She had all but pushed him into the waves of the ocean, wanting him to venture out and meet other yearlings. So what if he wasn't very outgoing? He'd managed to make some friends along the way anyway. There was Quillon, who had now seemed to have disappeared. There were the two fillies, Aiyiana in the Inlet and now Ayiana in the Prairie. Yeah, he thought the similarities in the names were odd, too. He liked to stick close to his mother, though he would say it's more for her benefit than his own. She was always so paranoid and on guard, always so overwhelmed. He couldn't blame her, really. Not long after he was born, they were drove to another island by a stallion who didn't seem to care about them at all. The stallion then dumped them on another stallion who then granted his mother her freedom but told her to wait to return home.

Then his father found them only he acted different. He was more feral, more aggressive, all but threatening to hurt Ryder's mother but never actually touching her. He remembered being so confused by the display and he could sense his mother's fear. Even so, she somehow managed to calm Ruger down and he let them leave but told them to go to yet another herd, not the one Ryder was born in. None of it made sense to him. Were they going to live there now in the Prairie or was it just another stop along the way? He snorted as his thoughts wandered, letting it use the time he spent swimming to reach the mainland. Once he made it to the banks, he trudged further inland and shook out his coat before looking around. His nostrils flared, tasting the air. Was that water he smelled?

Deciding to investigate cause his throat was a little parched after the swim, he ventured along the trail until he came upon a waterfall. Stopping in his tracks, his amber eyes traveled upward, following the cascading water to the top. What....the....hell? He'd never seen such a sight. His ears folded back, unsure as he slowly moved toward the pool of water at the bottom. Was it safe? He glanced up again at the water fall as if expecting the whole wall of it to just fall over on top of him. Was that a possibility? He sure hoped not. Tentatively, he reached out, lips pursed and ready to taste the surface of the pool even though his legs stayed braced in case he needed to run.