Life had, for one glorious, shining moment, returned to normal. The sadness that had swept over her during her mother's imprisonment was still there, lurking at the edges of her consciousness and tempting her to journey to the Peak once more, but it had gone all but silent in the joy she found in her little brother. Zvaid was a handful, but one that she enjoyed taunting and teasing and teaching. And her joy only expanded when the other foals began to trickle in one by one.

First had been Hades, who should have come with his own warning label. The boy was just as likely to bite something before he sniffed it, but he was a master at nip and chase, so Roi forgave him. Then came Sundance, although he was still pretty reclusive with his quiet momma. She still didn't know much about him, but she liked to smile at him when he appeared. Then Zvaid of course. She knew her momma was still troubled by what had happened during her imprisonment, but she didn't blame Zvaid at all, so Roi had decided not to do so either. And how could she? He was just a baby, and a sweet one at that.

Then came Asphodel and Prima on the shores of the Ridge, both orphaned within moments of their birth. Their arrival was really what had begun to make the mother's blend together, each sharing the load of so many hungry little mouths. Things seemed to get easier when Cicek and her son Kudzu emerged from the depths of the jungle, and Roisin loved to hear the mare talk about her history and her past. She regretted not spending time with her before she left for Tinuvel, and a tiny selfish part of her hoped that Cicek never left again.

Finch had been the last to arrive, and as such, was the babiest baby of the group. Everyone seemed to give in to her no matter what it was that she asked. Thankfully, she was cute enough that Roisin couldn't hold it against her.

Rounding up all of the babies, plus the older children that still lingered amongst the jungle -- Saoirse and Naenia and Lorcan and Matoaka -- had been no small feat. Roisin had done her best to swear them all to secrecy because she wanted to surprise Iscariot. He had been so distant from her and so lost in thought that she wanted to cheer him up all over again... partly to make him happy, but also because she knew that she would need every single one of her tricks to get him to agree to her ultimate plan.

"Okay, everybody listen up!" Roi whisper-shouted over the heads of the gathered children. She had done her best to wrangle as many of them as she could into her plan, but heaven knew there was plenty of opportunity to get distracted on the way there. "Does everyone have their decorations? Feathers? Flowers? Pretty berries? ... Mud?"

The last one hadn't been her favorite, of course, but sometimes foalish mischief could simply not be contained. "'Member what the plan is? We're gonna sneak," she said, breaking away from them to pantomime sneaking, "and be realllllly quiet. Then, when we see Iscariot we're gonna....?"

She trailed off into a question, hoping that one of them would remember and fill in the blank. Her intent was to have them all rush forward and decorate Iscariot before he could escape, thereby cheering him up and making him laugh. That way, she could send allllll the babies away and make her case for the Peak.

Of course, there were about a billion things that could go wrong, but she was definitely, pretty, mostly sure it was gonna work.

FILLY | MUTT | 14.3 HANDS WFG | BAY DUN SABINO | THE RIDGE | BJORN x SIOBHAN | LOVEINSPIRED | CREDIT