Rivaini

By all appearances, the filly was a creature of night. Her coat was the deep, dark chocolate of a twilight sky, and the pale strands of her mane and tail looked as if they’d been spun of moonlight. Cleaning the girl’s coat with gentle swipes of her tongue, Rivaini even found a scattering of small bright specks not unlike those reflected overhead. The silver bay marveled over these tiny markings in the lull that followed her daughter’s birth, tracing constellations between them— and feeling a strange, poignant sorrow that Faolain had not been here to discover them with her.

As their bellies swelled and the life within them began to stir, Rivaini had imagined that this was a moment they’d share together. That her little shadow would be there in the end, as she had been for Hades’s birth, offering comfort in her closeness and warmth. That she would be there to welcome the child whose very conception was evidence of the passion her companion felt for her; a passion that sent reason and restraint to the wind. Of course, the red mare knew that it was unfair of her to expect Faolain at her side, given the veil of uncertainty that surrounded any foal’s development and birth. But beneath the stone front she’d carved to fool the world lived a heart as soft as any other. A heart that could be hurt with a single word… or a single whim.

Such as a nighttime walk, something the black ‘Teke had done countless times to clear her mind. Something that had never bothered the bay Guardian before. Of anyone, she could understand the need for space and silence, both precious commodities now with the riotous antics of the Ridge’s countless children. But this time, it was different. This time, she’d felt wounded to wake up to that cold and empty spot beside her, even before it was evident that the contractions of active labor had awoken her. And so a single word wove endlessly through Rivaini’s thoughts as she rested, wearing at her until she felt as smooth and bare as the stones on her home’s shore— why?

Because you're afraid.

The answer came to the tobiano woman unbidden; a whisper spoken only in the silence of her mind. Yet somehow, she knew that it was true. And in the same way, she knew that it wasn’t herself whom she was frightened for. She’d given birth before, after all, and there’d been no reason to believe that this second child’s arrival would be anything but uneventful. Faolain, however— this child would be her first.. And though she’d never witnessed a traumatic birth firsthand, Rivaini understood on an intuitive level the cause of the orphaned foals who kept turning up in the Ridge (if not their reason for coming to her home specifically).

Rivaini was already struggling into a stand by the time the thud of a heavy body hitting the earth twisted her ears forward. Bleating plaintively at the sudden absence of her mother’s warmth, her dark daughter attempted to stand too, failing twice before her wobbly new legs splayed out to catch her just before she fell. But the girl’s mother— tasting the faintest tang of blood on the wind’s breath— did not pause to celebrate this moment, or even to allow her child to nurse. Instead, the red Guardian began to drift forward into the shadows of the jungle, heart hammering frantically against her ribs and lips left too numb to form the syllables of her beloved’s name. Unable to speak, she sent a wordless prayer to the gods instead. Not Faolain. Please, not her.

And it wasn’t Faolain that she found— though her heart was no less broken for that truth, nor for the filly who would never know her mother. “I’m sorry,” Rivaini breathed into the heavy silence, hating herself for the heady relief that still found its way into her chest, easing the tightness enough that she could breathe again. After a moment’s hesitation, she moved to approach the girl on limbs that trembled as much as her yet-unnamed daughter’s, pushing away her own grief and fear to offer this child the only comforts that she could: the warm wall of her strong body, and the gentle compassion of her touch.

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