Falls

fearghas

Time had passed slowly in the weeks following Aallotar's departure. Each day felt as though it had added extra minutes that he had never noticed before. And those minutes compounded into hours that he wasted staring idly across the rolling ocean.

The yoke of loneliness was one that he wore with bittersweet pride, knowing that he had managed to deliver her to an island retreat far from the dangers of the Lagoon. And most importantly, as far away from Cullen as possible. He had come to understand that her escape from the palomino brute was nothing short of a miracle, given his tendency to clamp onto whatever currently had his interest like a dog worrying a bone. Ally. Varanduil. Goose. Pick one, any one. He had a new flavor of the moment going on every time that Fearghas was forced to interact with him.

Fearghas just tried to keep his distance. He wasn't entirely sure what his future held now. There was an unspoken understanding between himself and Cullen, he thought, that as long as Fearghas stayed in the Lagoon, Ally could walk free. The young spotted stallion feared that if he were to leave, the Boss's eye would once more land upon the sleek silvery mare that had come to hold his heart. And he would do anything that he could to protect her, even if it meant giving her up.

The summer heat had become oppressive in the Lagoon. An oppressive force that gained malignancy as the humidity rose, and when combined with the monotonous drone of the insect life drove him to seek relief on the Crossing proper. Cleansed by the runoff of the falls, Fearghas strode glumly through the fields surrounding the water. His thoughts kept returning to Ally, even as he tried to steer them back to Kendry and his cryptic comments about the actual running of the Lagoon. There was so much he hadn't understood about how the land worked, and now armed with the knowledge, he was still unsure about how to undertake any changes.

But he understood, intrinsically, that drastic changes needed to be made.

There was no reason for a mare to fear her time in the Lagoon. They weren't supposed to be barbarians that sought only the taste of their target's fear. He didn't want to live his life to become like Cullen - a creature widely regarded as a villain by everyone he had ever met.

He wanted to be like Wasp. A strong leader, who knew where her morals lay and how important it was to protect those in her care. His time with her had been exceedingly short, but he thought of her often when he thought of his future. There needed to be more Wasps in the world, not more Cullens.

A figure ahead catches his eye and he is about to shift directions when something stops him. Sooner or later he needed to make his own connections. If the seed that had taken root in his mind was to grow to fruition, he needed to do a little gardening. And if he were being strictly honest with himself, this wasn't a bad creature to start with. Aside from the fact that it wasn't Ally, the stallion had an elegant shape to his body and a quiet regalness that Fearghas, with his uncouth youth and exuberance, sorely lacked. With a small shake of his spotted hide to get his head in the game, Fearghas moved to join the dark stallion, an amicable grin on his face.

"Top o' the mornin' to ye then," he said with slightly more gusto than was strictly necessary. "It's an awful nice day to be out, innit? First time 'ere?" Flicking the long dark strands of his tail over his hocks he gestured toward the Falls. "I dinna get up here much, truth be told, but I'm glad I did today."

A charming grin flicks across his lips, but it is far shorter-lived than it had once been and it fades into something more neutrally friendly. "I'm Fearghas, from the Lagoon by the way."

stallion . 2 years . 15.2 hands . smoky black blanket . loveinspired . credit