He was going to hate her.
She knew it.
How she knew it? Because of him. The golden stallion with a limp. It never crossed her mind that he would be related to Cullen. Let alone his son. Fearghas would hate her. He would hate her for eternity. She could already see the look of betrayal. But she knew he was a gentleman. She knew what he would do instead. The spotted stallion would look at her in deep sadness and he would somehow make this his fault. He wouldn’t blame her. He would tell her it was alright. That if he had not been so naïve about their situation, that she never would have had to leave with their daughter.
When she had expelled the dun colt from her body, she had been mollified. The exhaustion of the birth had nearly broken the grullo mare. The birth had been long, difficult, and different that her birth with Seri. The now two-year-old spotted filly was a mirror image of her father. “Hello Fortis.” She had whispered the words, or at least she thought she did. Her mind was so fatigued that she wasn’t sure if she had uttered the words. She had laid her slick neck to the dirt as the colt bleated. She wished he would stop.
It was a year ago now. Fortis proved to be much more difficult than she had anticipated to raise. The lone grey mare had, had minor behavioral issues with Seri. Mostly they had been confined to mare-ish behavior that she recognized in herself. Fortis was different; arrogant, forward, vain. She presumed the gods gave her what she deserved for shacking up Verrat in the Peak. She only hoped that the colt wouldn’t become cruel like Cullen, given that he was related to him. Cullen seemed to have all but disappeared from the Islands. She had heard rumors that the Lagoon’s ownership had changed almost as simultaneously as she had heard the Fearghas had disappeared from the Savanna.
She was alone again. Alone as the day she arrived. The air was cold again, just like when she’d washed ashore in the Commons. No. She refused to acknowledge it. Her dark eyes settled on her children. Fortis was annoying Seri. Nipping her tail. The petulant look Seri gave him made Aallotar smile just a little. At least they had bonded better than she expected. She would protect them from the world as long as she could, but she knew the days of Seri staying with her were dwindling. She could smell it. Fall meant the seasons were upon them both. Like targets. Aallotar had no intentions of having more children. Her track history with the male species hadn’t proved well. Both of them had left her to raise children alone.
That’s all she knew really, loneliness.
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