Falls

I DON'T WORRY,
WORRYING DON'T AGREE
THINGS THAT BOTHER YOU, NEVER BOTHER ME!

“Is it blue?”

“No.”

“Is it up?”

“Um… for me, yes.”

Talya halted in her step, making the dark gold roan colt stop awkwardly a few paces after. He turned his head to look at her past his wither as she tilted her head and frowned at him.

“What’s up for you but not up for me?” She asked, puzzled, and looked around them at anything that stopped at his eye level.

Kestrel grinned. “I can’t tell you that! You’re supposed to guess.”

Talya huffed, then noticed a bush off to the side that was a bit taller than Kestrel, but smaller than her. A triumphant smile stretched across her mouth. “Aha! It’s that bush, isn’t it?” Her pale, dainty legs picked up high as she trotted over to it and smiled back at him. “This one!”

“Nope!”

Talya’s eyes widened in surprise. She looked back at the bush, then back at Kestrel, then back around them, then at him again. “But I don’t see anything else that’s taller than you but smaller than me.” She complained. “Are you cheating?”

“No! Ask me more stuff!”

“Hmm…” Idly she wandered away from the bush and, as she started walking, Kestrel fell happily in step beside her. They had been winding their way slowly down the length of Crossing Isle the entire morning, playing games back and forth and being in no particular hurry. Talya was all too happy to show Kestrel all the really cool hiding spots she used to play in, and she liked how much it impressed him that she knew so much. “Is it something you eat?”

Kestrel looked momentarily horrified. “No!” Then he snorted and giggled. “I would never eat it!”

“Oh…” Talya was smiling, even though she didn’t know why that question was funny yet. She just liked it when Kestrel laughed. It was a nice sound. “Would I eat it?”

“No! I hope not!” Another burst of giggles came out of his mouth.

An idea occurred to her. “Hey, wait a minute,” she narrowed her eyes on him. “Is it even something that’s here with us? Or is it back on Luthien.”

“It’s right here!”

“Right here?”

“Yeah!”

Talya frowned and drew to a halt again. Kestrel, clearly pleased with how much this one was confusing her, trotted in a wide half-circle, and stopped when he was facing her. He tilted his head up, pale tail held high off his rump. “C’mon!” He encouraged. “Ask more questions.”

“Okay…” Talya took her time studying the small space between the two of them and thinking of all the clues he’d given so far. “Hey- wait a minute!” She grinned. “Is it me?”

“Yeah! It’s you!”

A happy whinny rumbled out of her mouth and Talya laughed. “That was a good one!” She had been about to say more when she went suddenly quiet, the smile quick to fall off her face. Kestrel didn’t often see his mother without a smile but, those few times he did, he knew it meant something quite serious. His tail dropped, ears flicking as he looked around them, trying to puzzle together what might’ve upset her, but saw nothing.

Talya was staring at a particularly large, flat rock and she looked as though she was caught in some sort of trance. Physically she may be standing amid the Falls alongside her child, but mentally she was in the past, remembering the day she’d last had here. It was the day she kept trying to forget with the stallion she kept trying to forget… but couldn’t.

“Mama?” Kestrel asked, frowning, then reached to gently lay his muzzle against her shoulder. Talya didn’t move or even show she had heard him, but this had happened before. Eventually something would break through to her, and his mother would return to him, all smiles and laughter once more. Kestrel knew not to ask her what had happened after, because the last time he had, she hadn’t known what he was talking about and that had scared him even more than her suddenly going quiet.

He closed his eyes and sighed a warm breath against her shoulder, stepping closer to cuddle up against her side as he waited.