Navárez
When Nav woke up, the world was not as it should have been.
The oat-colored mare stirred against the sand, her senses returning to her one by one. First, she smelled brine as she breathed, and felt the breeze on her face. Then, she became aware of the waves lapping at her hooves, swirling the creamy feathers around them. It was a gentle feeling, but she still pulled her legs in with apprehension. She realized she could hear the waves as well as feel them, and when she opened her eyes, she saw soft sand stretching out in front of her.
Her head throbbed. Carefully, the pale mare gathered her hooves beneath her and rose. What had come before this? She did not know. She remembered nothing, but she understood that this was different; Nav had come from somewhere else.
Fear gripped her belly as she shook herself out, sand flying away from her coat and out of her thick mane. Was it a good thing that she had gone away? Had she escaped something terrible?
Or did she have loved ones that missed her, and wondered where she was?
The second thought squeezed her heart in such a manner that her soft green eyes filled with tears, and she had to banish it. Better to think that she was not missed, and had no one to miss herself. Navárez rubbed her face on one foreleg, wiping away the tears, before turning her still-bleary gaze to the land before her. Tentatively, she moved forward, away from the shore and into the shade of the trees.
-
It was several days later that she came across the Falls. Nav had stayed close to the stream that ran from the cascading waters, and she had heard the roar near by, but had never gotten too close. It smelled too strongly of others, and the pale mare was not yet ready to make her presence known. Still, curiosity eventually drove her to at least look at the source of the noise, and she was both awestruck and a little frightened by the volume of water that tumbled into the pool below.
She was yet unwilling to reveal herself to the strangers here, but she wanted to get closer. There weren’t many, and across the roiling waters came a copper mare who looked to be in a similar situation as Nav herself. The Vanner did not consider herself brave, and as she watched the few strangers come to drink, her courage faltered. She stepped back again, shrinking into the shadows, but her green eyes lingered on the lone chestnut mare.
She looked frightened, but it was somehow encouraging to watch her come to drink. Nav found herself a little less worried about the gaze of the others, and after a moment, she gathered her courage to explore the Falls.
Before her, the water seemed to boil and hiss. Her nose dampened from the mist even before she touched the frigid, restless surface. Nav stepped carefully into the shallow edge of the pool - first her front legs, then hind. It was cold, but not so bad. The Falls were loud, but she got used to them after a minute. Her tail swirled around her legs, and the ends of her mane floated against her chest as she stepped deeper. The salt that had remained in her fur for the last few days was rinsing quickly away, and it felt wonderful.
She found it hard to tear her eyes away from the foaming surface of the water, but when she did, they flicked once again to the copper mare. As Nav was now practically in the middle of the pool, the Friesian was much closer than when she had first spotted her. ”Hello,” she said, her voice tinged with surprise - she hadn’t realized she’d waded this far out, and decided she was quite proud of doing so without chickening out.
mare - vanner mutt - silver smoky cream - 15.2hh
homeless - mother to none - bound to none
