Falls

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

“Talya?”

The only thing that showed she had heard him was a slight pinch of the frown she was wearing as she stared wordlessly at the rock. Kestrel went rigid, hearing the stallion’s voice but not seeing him (as he was standing on the opposite side and his mother was blocking the view). If there were stallions in the Forest, Kestrel wasn’t around them. But Talya had never told him to fear strangers or to worry himself over it, so he tucked his chin back and peeked his head around her shoulder, looking over at the stallion who knew his mother.

His ears perked and he gave a nervous, small smile. His brown eyes went up to his mother, though she still hadn’t moved, then back to the stallion. He carefully picked his lanky, growing limbs through the ice-trampled ground that squished gently under his weight, and pulled himself around his mother so he could look more clearly at the stallion and the stallion at him.

A soft breeze drew Frey’s scent to Talya, and she snorted rather suddenly, then blinked, looking confusedly down at Kestrel, then back up where she saw Frey. She went still and looked nervously at him, worried he was still angry and mean. He wasn’t. He looked… hopeful? She looked down at Kestrel, who had been prepared to try and intervene with the conversation if his dam didn’t snap out of it, then back up at Frey.

She was so, so happy to see her playmate again. A smile broke out across her mouth as her pale tail flagged out behind her. She reached down to nudge Kestrel’s rump and happily said, “C’mon! He’s gonna love you!”

Kestrel didn’t know who he was, but only looked puzzled after his dam as she tossed her head and trotted forward to greet the stallion. He followed a few steps after, walking up as his mother was stretching her neck out to bump noses with the stallion and share a few warm breaths.

“You’re not mad anymore, right?” She asked, a little nervous worry in her voice and her eyes as she tucked her head back and looked at him, more nervous he was still mad at her than she was introducing him to his kid.