Rivaini

It was haphazard, the way that the Ridge’s guardians raised their dark chestnut heir - but that did not stop Hades from thriving.

From the first moments after his birth, Rivaini’s son had proven to be willful and wild—and the passage of time that slowly changed his body did not touch this part of his nature. If anything, the stronger that the boy grew, the more he sought to test the strength (and patience) of those around him. More than once, the silver bay was grateful to have Faolain as a partner in the trial of motherhood - for she was certain she could not have handled this particular child on her own. Once, she even remarked to her beloved shadow that if her hair had not already been colored silver, then she would have gained many over the course of the season. Shortly after, she’d been peeled away from her companion’s side to chase Hades away from the other foals, leaving Faolain to apologize to the dam whose child he’d bitten.

At first, they shared the duties of leadership and motherhood in an unbroken cycle. One of them was always in the meadow with Hades - tethered to the colt’s side - while the other might step away for a patrol or to stand watch on the beach. Both were too aware of the threat that Siobhan and Ailill’s enemy represented, and were concerned that their forced lapse in vigilance might be just the opening that the mare’s captors would seek. Eventually, Rivaini began to include the mahogany boy on short circuits of their home. When these proved to serve a secondary purpose of tiring Hades, she slowly increased their distance and frequency. If nothing else, she felt it appropriate that the child with such strong ties to Atlantis should see as much of it as his physical abilities allowed.

But there was always the risk of danger, as one day on the cusp of summer illustrated.

“Hades!” The auburn mare called out, pausing to twist her ears about and listen for the boy’s answering call or the sound of a small body moving through the jungle. When only silence greeted her, Rivaini turned about and began to head back in the direction from which she’d come - recalling the way her son’s ears had perked and his nostrils quivered along one faint path through the foliage. She’d ushered him on his way with a lacing of ears and a couple nips when he proved resistant, but didn’t doubt that Hades would have slipped back at the first opportunity. And certainly enough, when she reached the trail the colt’s scent continued along it - beneath hanging vines and between freshly-scarred branches that indicated the passage of a creature larger than him. Feeling the thundering beat of her heart at the base of her throat, Rivaini called out against, more desperately. “Hades! If you don’t come back right now, I swear by your father I’ll-”

But the vow died abruptly on the guardian’s lips, and the tremble of her rosy skin took on a new note. Warmth Rivaini’s chest as the scent of Çiçek abruptly filled her quivering nostrils, washing her frantic thoughts in memories of golden sun and husky laughter. Of searing touches and flowers. Elated, she bounded forward through the trees and the fronds, and caught sight of the dark flanks of her son ahead. Laughing throatily as she recalled the hollow threat she’d spoken only moments earlier, Rivaini stayed her hand gladly this time - greeting him with nothing more than the affectionate tousling of his ember-bright mane. “Well done, my clever lit-” Again, the volume of her voice faded, and words clung abandoned to the tip of her tongue.

Time stopped, but the world did not.

And she stared at the familiar-but-not figure of the spotted golden mare - and the still-damp colt nestled into her side.

Shock had frozen his mother in place, but Hades had no such qualms. Perhaps he recognized a blood-brother in the colt ahead, or perhaps he only wanted to investigate the strange scents that surrounded the mother-and-son pair. Either way, he emerged fearlessly from the shadows, his dark brown skin quivering only with excitement when he drew as close as he dared to the golden mare. And then, for the first time, paused to chatter his teeth in a show of submission - an uncharacteristic show of appeasement that even his father had not been granted at their first meeting. Lowering his head until it was level with his shoulders, Hades watched the other foal with tiger-orange eyes for a moment, until the shifting motions of an older boy captured his attention. Then - lips peeling back in a manner that intended to be threatening but fell decidedly short - he stomped one small hoof in an attempt to scare the larger boy off from these two creatures that he had sought to claim as his own.

Moving woodenly, Rivaini stepped forward to stand at her son’s side - but her voice remained lost somewhere in the darkness that surrounded this place.

mare / seven / silver bay tobiano / andalusian mix / 15.3hh