Meadow

There is a peace captured in the stillness of the morning, a sense of calm that should soothe and bring him a sort of serenity and yet the spotted vagabond cannot help but feel that something is off as he reminisces about the strong women who had come through his life. He cannot help that his thoughts linger even more so on the brindled woman who had been the most recent to travel through, even though it was verging on over a year ago now. Perhaps it is the return of the season that had been the source of her trauma that caused her memory to stand out above all the rest, for though he had offered her shelter and a place to feel safety even if for a few fleeting moments that night they had parted ways. A part of him regrets that choice, she had been wounded in more ways than he could imagine and he should have … could have done more.

He had not missed the flashes of strength that had flared like bright embers in the darkness of that night, even in such a state she had not lost all of herself and he desperately hoped she had found it again. Even though he knew so little of her, scarcely more than her name, he couldn’t help but wish that she had begun to recover.

It is as if by dwelling on the silvery mare that he had summoned her into existence with sheer force of will, surprise coloring his features as her scent, as familiar as it was unforgettable, wafted towards him on the cool morning breeze. Already his broad face swings her way, emerald eyes already searching for the distinctive figure he knows she will paint in the soft light of morning. The questioning sound of his name on her lips filling him with a delight he had not expected as she began to barrel towards him.

To be honest it was not sure what her reaction would be if the pair ever managed to run into one another again. He had borne witness to her darkest and most personal hell and a part of him knew that his presence might drudge those feelings back to the surface as sure as the man who had been responsible for it. The sheer exultation she exuded as she ran towards him completed him in a way nothing had in far too long, filling him with a purpose he had been missing and yearning for since he pledged to live every moment his life had left. “Sabriel!” He can barely get the horse rumble of her name from his lips before she crashes into him, her slight frame dwarfed and cushioned into the thick muscle of his own.

Instinctively he wraps the heavy curve of his neck around her, a protective gesture as he takes a few moments to breath in her sweet perfume. “I wasn’t sure I would see you again.” Soft word mumbled against her warm skin before he pulls back just enough to look her over. “Are you alright?” To his eye she seemed healthy as was possible, but he knew the scars she bore were not necessarily ones he might see. So much time had passed, and though a foal by her side was decidedly absent that did not answer the many questions swimming behind his searching eyes.