It wasn’t long before the trio was approached, as Zevulun had hoped would happen. He lifted his head and snorted, sucking in a deep breath of the black stallion who approached them. No – not stallion. Colt. A very large colt who held himself with the natural confidence of maturity. A lop-sided smile wanted to fall over Zev’s pale lips, but he kept himself from falling to the urge. He didn’t want the boy to think he was mocking him if he were to grin.
Zevulun knew all about being made to act as a grown, independent colt by the time you were a year old. He’d been the very same.
His eyes fell to his sons, who had also stopped grazing and lifted their heads to pay attention to the black colt approaching them. Ramiel and Raziel knew that feeling as well, though that wasn’t what Zev had wanted for their foalhood. Suppressing a sigh and keeping those emotions from the friendly, open expression that instead took his face, Zev turned his eyes back in time to watch the colt pull up to a slow halt an easy distance from them. His demeanor helped keep Zev, Raziel, and Ramiel calm and warm, receptive to his company.
Three pairs of blue eyes turned to the sky and caught the dark clouds rolling in, and the darker ones waiting in the wing. They twitched their ears and caught the way the breeze had picked up a little in the trees. Their eyes fell back down to him. Zev, naturally, was the one who moved a step closer and spoke for them.
“We don’t,” he said, and glanced at his sons, their coats still damp, the creams and golds and spots darkened, looking back forward again. “We just arrived a little while ago.” Curiously, Zev watched the young boy, who he could see was even younger than he’d first thought now that they stood close. It endeared Zev to him even more.
“Would you happen to have a place to offer?”
“I’m Ramiel!” It was his happy, open, warm son who spoke first. “This is my brother Raziel,” his muzzle pointed toward his brother, who watched with quiet, ice-blue eyes. “And-”
“And,” Zevulun interrupted warmly with a smile, looking from Ramiel back to their company. “I was just going to get to introductions. I’m Zevulun, Ramiel and Raziel’s father.”
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