That same wide grin split across Iona’s lips, entirely amused by Kerr and his foal antics. He was the first of the Prairie foals younger than her that she’d really interacted with. He called her Ona and she decided not to correct him. He seemed so happy to repeat it and to know her name that it just made her want to smile and agree. “Yup!” She bobbed her head, half-grown brown mane bouncing with the motion.

A thoughtful expression briefly crossed over her as she considered his question. What’s play? His big eyes looked up at her - there was something about the way he looked at her that was building some sort of protectiveness inside Iona, like she’d put herself in front of anything terrible to happen to Kerr while she was near - and she briefly floundered. “Well, play is… uh…” There were all sorts of things “play” could be! “Play is a lot of things.”

“Play is… running around!” She said first, but then glanced a little beyond him at the adults, and immediately knew if she and Kerr took off running across the Prairie grass they’d have at least one of the mares on their heels. “Or it can be rough-housing,” she suggested next, but looked at little Kerr and knew she would have to make sure she held herself back if they were to rough-house. “My mom doesn’t really like when I do that one, I don’t think yours will either.” She said it more idly, mumbling as she frowned, tilting her head and studying the little colt in front of her.

“Play is us having fun together.” She said decidedly and nodded her head, then lowered it to look more on his level, rather than have him looking up at her. “Whatcha like to do, Kerr? Wanna run around?” As long as they stayed in the line of sight of their mother’s surely they wouldn’t be charged after. Iona’s brown tail flagged off her rump as she gave her head a little toss, grinning and trotting in a wide half-circle away from him, then glanced back over her speckled coat with an energetic brightness lighting her eyes. If he tried to move closer to her, Iona planned to trot a few steps away, teasing him into a little game of tag.

—-------

There was a kind relief in Lilija’s eyes as soon as Isla offered to talk with Iona. “I would definitely appreciate that. She’s at the age where I think she’ll listen better if it doesn’t come from her mother.” It wasn’t said bitterly or even angrily, only matter-of-fact. There was even a bit more of a grin as she glanced at Grier, thinking there was likely a time when Isla herself had been the same. Whatever Iona heard from Lilija was going to be taken with the need to rebel and likely do the opposite of what her mother said. But maybe from another mare in the herd… maybe Iona would listen. Especially with Isla sharing the understanding of having that adventuring heart.

She reflected briefly on what Isla had said - The world was too big tae stay in one place… - and a faint, warm smile turned her dark lips. That, she thought, was exactly how Iona seemed to feel. The Prairie was a large, safe territory, but her daughter seemed bored of it already and desperate to see everything else. It didn’t help that her grandfather often filled her head with wild adventures of the other islands and all the different things he’d seen on them.

Lilija’s grey, black-speckled ears flicked as Grier asked of her traveling and she gave a small nod. “Traveling was all my life was,” she admitted, “As soon as I could swim from the islands to the Mainlands I wandered with my mother, and then kept wandering on my own once she went her own way.” Just saying that suddenly made her realize why it was she’d never understood Iona’s desperate need to see everything, thinking she’d never been like that as a foal. Of course she hadn’t, as her entire life had been living one place to the next, never staying anywhere for very long.

A bit of humor took her smile and she admitted, “I actually didn’t think I’d be finding my father or my mother when I came back to these islands. I met Balor in the Falls and he invited me home to the Prairie with him.” That familiar sinking of her heart in her chest; the stallion she’d barely fallen for, taken from her before he could even meet their son. But Lilija set that dull pain privately aside as she’d been doing since he was lost and said, “Imagine my surprise when I got here and found out my dad was here too. I’d never met him before, just heard my mother’s stories. It was…” She blew a breath and chuckled, “It was a whirlwind.”

She glanced briefly off at Iona and Kerr, seeing they were getting a little more lively. Children could never stay still for too long, could they?

“I’d hope Iona may meet her father one day,” Lilija said, “although I’m afraid I don’t know much about him aside from his name.” And how charming he’d been, and handsome too. Their coupling felt like a memory clouded in fog in her head, something she did in the midst of her grief as she’d mourned Balor, looking for something new.

Realizing she’d been so focused on herself, Lilija shook her head and looked back at Isla and Grier. “Is Kerr's father here in the Prairie too?” She knew there was a handful of stallions living here who were not of blood relation to her and wondered if one of them was the colt's father.

~ ♥ ~