The Forest had seen Zevulun’s company many times throughout his life, even being the one territory on Luthien he’d first visited when he was two years-old and on a mission to see all of the islands. The thing that had remained most constant about it during all those years was its leadership. Persephone leaving the islands was done quietly, but the sound was loud to those who still knew her best. Zevulun understood and hoped she found what she was seeking, but he still felt a bit of a sting the more and more her smell disappeared from the Forest borders.
It wasn’t too long before a stallion’s scent began to repeat, covering hers, clearly claiming the now quiet and empty territory as his own. Still, Zevulun did not linger to meet him right away. He made his line along the Prairie clear, then turned back inland and returned to his herd. Each day he told himself he would trail the Forest border to find this stallion, his new neighbor, but it was oddly more difficult than he thought it would be.
Especially after seeing Mariael. The first horse he’d wanted to tell everything to was Persephone, finally let her in on what had torn Zevulun and his sister apart, and tell her that she was here. That Mariael was back… and he didn’t know how to feel about it.
Zevulun breathed a heavy, pensive sigh and looked up, back into the trees ahead. The Prairie was such an open place, often letting him see most of his territory on a clear day, it was always somewhat startling to be in a confined space like the Forest again. He flicked his pale ear and trailed his gaze up, up, up to the tops of the trees and watched a few birds flutter from branch to branch, settling on one tree and then moving to the next.
There was no more time for delay. It was time to meet his new neighbor and get a sense for them, to begin to live in a world where Persephone was truly no longer here, no matter how odd that felt to him. Zevulun took a step forward and crossed into the Forest, dropping his pale nose to the ground and trying to follow the freshest trail of the new stallion’s scent so he might find him and finally meet him.
|
