TW: mentions of blood, birth, death. this is technically also open for anyone, but pls let Love reply first <3

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"Mom, look at all these bugs!"

Brynja lifted her head from where she was grazing, cerulean eyes falling upon the figure of her daughter. She watched as Svenja ran headlong into the grass and weeds, sending a swarm of insects flying around her kicking hooves. She was no longer as lanky as she'd once been, her body quickly catching up to the rest of her. Every time the dun mare looked at her daughter, watched as she got a little bigger with each season, she was reminded that her child was just another step closer to becoming an adult. Soon the potential for grandchildren would be ever-present. But that was one thing she refused to think about just yet.

Svenja quickly became distracted by a particularly fat bumblebee, abandoning her frolicking in favor of chasing it across the oceanside meadow. Brynja only smiled and laughed, giving an amused shake of her head before returning to her grazing. Around her the rest of the Bay herd lingered, save Valka and Bacardi, who were undoubtedly off doing whatever it is leaders did. Brynja had never bothered to become familiar with the duties of leadership; she'd decided long ago that life wasn't for her. Like her grandmother, she was content to simply live among her family and feel fulfilled by her role as a mother and teacher.

She couldn't imagine a better way to spend her life: surrounded by family and friends.

Brynja continued to graze for several more hours. The sun was high in the sky when the first pains of labor grasped at her belly. It was a familiar ache, but still left her clenching her teeth against the onslaught. Ensuring Svenja was being carefully looked after, the bay dun mare sequestered herself from the rest of the herd, finding a peaceful clearing amid the southern forests to labor in. These woods that covered the border between her home and the neighboring Inlet were little-traveled and provided ample privacy for such a personal event.

Her muscled squeezed and quaked, pain searing through her belly as her muscles bore down like a vice against the foal inside her womb. The labor progressed quickly than she anticipated. Unlike with Svenja, who had taken her time making her grand entrance into the world, this foal appeared far more eager to say hello. But as she pushed, she began to realize something was wrong. Something didn't feel right. Her head felt light, and a cold sweat had suddenly broken out across her ochre coat. She felt like she was somehow both on fire and covered in ice at the same time, gut twisting sickeningly.

The white-faced mare fell to her knees and then rolled onto her side as the world continued to spin around her. 'I have to get it out,' she thought through her haze. One last great push and it was like a great weight had been lifted from her body. She felt so light in both body and mind, the tides of consciousness pulling her down.

Brynja had just enough energy to lift her head and look at the little bundle as it lay there shivering on the ground behind her. She couldn't tell if it was a colt or a filly, but couldn't bring herself to care. With a heavy thus, her head dropped back to the leaf-littered earth, the edges of her vision rapidly darkening. Each shallow breath flooded her nose with the sickly smell of blood, its metallic odor thick in the air as it seeped into the earth. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was aware that it was her own blood. That she should be worried, frantic even - she was bleeding out, and her child needed her, but her mind and her body felt disconnected.

Time moved strangely as she laid there, unsure of how long. It was like being stuck between a dream and reality, floating in a strange void that she couldn't quite escape. She thought of her newborn, of what its life might look like without her. She thought of her grandmother, the wise old woman she had hoped to become one day. She thought about Svenja - poor Svenja, whose last glimpse only her mother would be watching her disappear into the trees. There were so many things she was leaving behind.

Eventually, distantly, she became aware of another. A woman with a soft voice that beckoned for the foal — for him — to get up.

"Help him... please..." Brynja begged, blue eyes rolling in the direction the voice was coming from but too filled with tears to see properly. All she could make out was a copper-colored blur. Ashen lips began to curl, warmth blooming in her chest at the knowledge that her child would not be left to the wilderness. But a stabbing pain through her belly quickly distorted it into an ugly grimace, teeth clenching against a sob. She could feel it in the deepest parts of her soul and mind: this is where her path ended, and there was naught to be done about it.

With the last of her energy Brynja blinked away her tears so she could catch the russet woman's gaze and say:

"His name... it's Aleksi... please take care of him."