Fell had hardly noticed the waterlogged mare as she stumbled up the shore. He was ambling away from her as she washed up, and by the time he turned to make his way slowly back through the shallows, the young woman was a motionless lump on the cold, pebbled earth, apathetic to the waves that slid alongside her shivering body. It was only after he had slowed to a halt that he saw her move at the edge of his blurring, tired vision.

What do you want? she stammered at him, as though he had knowingly approached her. As though he had expectations for the half-drowned girl the ocean had seen fit to deposit on his shores. The Marwari stallion was fatigued, having ground down most of his anger into the fine sands that clouded around his feathered hooves, but irritation began to stir within him at her question anyway. His hooked ears pinned back, and he tossed his head once, side-eyeing her as his salt-coarse forelock flew away from his face and then fell back.

Can’t you see I’m busy?

Oh, how badly he wanted to spit back at her that I’m busy too, you’re not so special. But all he could manage was a low growl, and a stamp of his hoof to punctuate his wordless statement that sent a fan of water out over the waves in front of him. The ocean was beginning to shimmer with the light of the rising sun, and Fell tried to blink away his exhaustion so that he could actually see the mare on the beach.

In the dim light of early dawn, he couldn’t see much. She had white splashes on a dark frame, but that was about all he could see. She looked very small curled up in the water, and although he had considered it, Fell refrained from another outburst. He needed some outlet, but a sodden painted mare on his doorstep was probably not going to do the trick, no matter how big she talked.

Somewhere deep beneath his fatigue Fell recognized he should get out of the water and go get some sleep, despite the rising sun. Groggily, he began to trudge toward the deep shadows of the forest inland. As he neared the painted mare on his way, he ducked his head and thrust his muzzle into her side to give her a rather rude shove. As annoyed as he was, he wasn’t about to let some frozen mare with the attitude of an overgrown housecat die on his shore. The least she could do was perish on fertile ground, as nature intended.

FELL

stallion. 16hh. black. marwari x. Rougaru x visurix.