Falls

As fall wore on and faded into winter, the reality of her situation became more and more apparent. Esther had always been partial to a pretty face, and she was a victim to her hormones just like everyone else. So her little...interlude with the striking, silver and black stallion wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise was the result of their time together. She’s certain that she is with foal; it had been subtle at first, but as fall wore on her hormones faded. She wasn’t getting the sort of attention she was used to, and she didn’t have quite the same reaction to passing, handsome stallions as she had in the past. That could really only mean one thing. Esther pretended that it wasn’t happening for as long as she could, exploring the large Crossing isle as the days shortened and everything took on a lovely, gold-tinted hue. But it’s here at the base of the falls that she’s had to reckon with her reality. She’s growing. Esther had caught sight of her reflection in a still pond, and where she’s used to seeing her smooth, svelte form she detected a swell. It’s slight, just a gentle sloping increase of her stomach, a slight shift in her stance as her hips widen to accommodate. But it is there.

There was nothing more sobering than that realization, like a bucket of cold water over her head. How is she possibly going to make it through another winter, wandering homeless and helpless and trying to nourish this growing foal? Where will she have it? Where will she raise it? Better yet, what in the world will she do with it once it’s here? It will hardly be able to keep up with her; Esther has seen children before, knows that they’re all long legs and clumsy inelegance. She wouldn’t be able to go anywhere fast, wouldn’t be able to ride the high of racing through the Commons and avoiding any claim. No, she’d be simply relegated to the same little area over and over, and that’s assuming that the father of this unexpected surprise didn’t bodily drag her back to whatever hole he called home.

Esther lets out a loud snort of frustration, pawing at the loamy soil beneath her hooves, churning the earth as her frustration spills over into the physical. It isn’t enough, and so instead she lets out a frustrated shout. She needs help, needs somewhere to go, but she has no idea where to find Sigurdr. Their interaction didn’t exactly call for ‘here’s my home, come look me up some time’. Instead, they’d parted ways with a smile and a quick word….which leaves Esther with nothing, and nowhere to go. She hangs her head in defeat, eyes brimming with hot tears that she ineffectively tries to fight back. They spill to the ground below, salt mixing with the distrubed ground she’d torn up. “What am I going to do,” she moans pitifully, imploring the very universe around her to provide an answer.