Dawn was slow to break across Salem, creeping slowly through the steel gray atmosphere and sending brilliant rays to shine through the clouds and scatter beams of gold dappling across the landscape. This was the farthest that Raeger had ever gone from mom-rock-Vela by at least two and a half sand dunes... which was pretty risky, really. She wouldn't hesitate to try and hide from him if she thought that she could get away with it, and he wasn't
quite ready to forgo the snacks he stole while she was sleeping. He'd have to make his little adventure quick so he could get back before she figured it out.
Despite this, he was eager to see more of the world beyond the dusty red canyons that he haunted with his dam and so he raced along the dune tops with his dark tail flagged in the air. Raegar had little concept of boundaries or the borders between lands, and as such, did not know that he had travelled beyond the border of the Badlands. He did, however, eventually notice that there were no more trails left by his father and slowed to a trot as he puzzled out what that could mean. As far as he was concerned, Rafe ruled the whole of this island, and therefore everything the sun touched belonged to him (and by proxy, Raegar).
Movement down in a small depression caught his eye and he turned to look at the creature with interest. They appeared to be alone, and as he flipped his lip up to scent the air around them, also appeared to be a mom-rock of some kind. Not his, of course, but certainly a mom-rock.
But... why
couldn't it be his mom-rock? Who said he couldn't have two? He'd done a good job of protecting and guarding his mom-rock from all comers (if you ignored his first day, which he did because he hadn't been very big then), and surely no one would begrudge him for having another mom-rock. After all, his dad had more mom-rocks around him than Raegar could even
count.
Decision made, the precocious weanling launched himself down the side of the dune with his ears pinned back and head held low in a snaking position. It was part instinctual, and part learned from both his mother's constant efforts to drive him away and his father's interactions with the rest of the herd. He didn't bother with trying to set up a conversation first, only drove forward as if he were a mature band stallion, ready to claim his first mare, and not a barely weaned colt that hadn't even fully shed out of his summer woolies.
As he got close to the mare, it occurred to him that she smelled like the stranger that had tried to take mom-rock from him in the beginning and his prepubescent rage skyrocketed into overdrive. He'd been here, trying to take
this mom-rock from him too?
No. Raegar wouldn't stand for it... and this time there was no dad or sister to thwart his efforts.
"Go!" He shouted as he drove forward, stretching out to try and nip at her in a driving fashion.
OOC: Backdated to end of autumn <3