Falls

Solomon

Lulled by the quiet roar of the falls in the background, the lean tobiano allows his mind to wander over his plans. There was much that still needed to be done, and he couldn't help but think of Ensign, trapped as she was in the Shore. Ironclad had spoken highly of the bald-faced queen, but Solomon had little more than enmity for her. It was frustrating enough that she constantly targeted the Cove herd, but this he could've gotten over. What he could not forgive her for was the loss of Morgause to the fate of the unknown and that she had attempted to take Nadja and the child that she carried from him. It still raised his blood pressure to think of it, even though months had passed in between.

He needed to bring her home.

Before his thoughts can wander too far, a soft utterance of his name wipes the faraway look from his eyes and his head snaps to the source with an expression of disbelief. The brilliantly golden figure with the delicate interlacing of spots across her rump was as unmistakable as the joyous expression that she wore, and yet his voice is incredulous as he echoes her name-calling. "Çiçek?"

Disbelief fades immediately to concern as he realizes where she is, and he rushes to her side, eager to assure himself of her realness. He had not known if their coupling had taken in the fall, having not had the pleasure of living at her side day to today. Seeing his mares grow round with children, and anticipating the new life that was to come was one of his favorite parts of being a father, and to see evidence of their shared new life in the rounded shape of her stomach filled him with both pleasure and worry. Had she risked her life in the turbulent winter sea to come to him early? Or had she simply done so out of a desire to socialize, as he had? Where were Rivaini, or Faolain to protect her? Did they really take her safety so casually as to send her off alone while pregnant?

Concern clouds his brow, but he cannot help the warmth that floods his gaze as he presses his muzzle to her shoulder and inhales the familiar floral scent of her. He chuckles at her teasing, although his voice is tight with far too many questions. "You are," he murmurs softly, the words full of the desire and adoration he held for her. He tears himself away with some reluctance to meet her gaze, "although I thought you planned to make me wait until summertime."

As much as he was glad that he did not have to look at long barren months without seeing her again, this change of plans also worried him. To see her alone now, with no one nearby to help if something were to happen, put him on edge and he couldn't help but wonder if something had popped up between her and the Ridge's guardians. Had they taken offence to the child that she carried? Or to the deal that they had struck? A part of him almost wishes this were the case, if only because it would mean that her ties to the Ridge and it's guardians would be severed, but the majority hopes that this is not the case. Against his own will, he still thinks too highly of Faolain to think that she would abandon and pregnant mare and coming child out of simple jealousy.

Fondly he stretches to touch a flower still tangled in Çiçek's mane, his lips quirking upward in a half-smile. He had no doubt that one of the Ridge's guardians had woven it into her mane as Rivaini had done on his last visit, and he envied the time that they had spent together. Considering how late in the season they had come together, he had planned to come visit at the end of spring in the hopes of not only seeing her, but also the child she might be carrying. Despite his growing to-do list, seeing Çiçek had always sat near the top. He could not explain the way that she drew him in, or why his thoughts continued to linger on her even when she was not near, but he had long since given up fighting them.

"Did you dress up for me, flower girl?" He teases her gently, not wanting to launch into accusations or hard questions before re-affirming the bond that they had shared in the Ridge. "Or have you come to visit some other schmuck that's fallen head over heels for you?"

He is no less smitten with her than he had been on the shores of the Ridge. She is as beautiful, if not more so now, than she had been then and he knows now that his memory of her had not done her justice. No amount of imagination could capture the way her eyes glittered with delight and mischief, or the way that the sunlight made each spot across her rump stand out. Looking at her now, he couldn't help but wonder how had he ever agreed to be apart from her in the first place.

Dutch Harness Horse Mutt | Champagne Grullo Tobiano Stallion | 17 Hands | The Cove