Âkulu still wasn’t sure what to make of the… reunion. She’d felt like her body was missing pieces all her life. Parts of herself, elements of her culture. Life with her great mother and mother hadn’t exactly been easy, but it wasn’t the absolute worst, and for what felt like a long while, it’d felt… normal. But then, it was all she’d ever known. These islands only felt like a distant memory from her first days alive. They’d been hard, terrifying, even. But perhaps that was precisely why Âkulu felt so desensitized by stressful situations… As happy was she was to be home, as excited as she was to meet and reunite with her sire and her twin, she needed some time to herself to process, and so after a few days, she snuck away from the watchful gaze of her herd.
She pulled herself from the sea and shook herself free of excess salt water, only to continue further drip as she cut across the Falls. It was early spring, but there was still a cool crisp bite of winter nipping at the warmth of the day and she makes haste for the more open meadow.
Upon arriving, she trots to a stop, not exactly recognizing or realizing where she was, or just how close to the danger she’d placed herself. By now, she was dried considerably… But ultimately, she was still wet and her ebon coat glistened in the sunlight. Instinct took over as the young mare would have pawed at the earth below for a moment or two, inhaling the scent of the earth, before dropping and rolling, smearing the scent of the meadow across her form… Masking her scent to some degree.
But what Âkulu fails to recognize is that there are more predators than just the standard big cat, bear, or wolf. While she could throw her scent off to them, she couldn’t totally mask herself from an ambitious, eager stallion. She stands when she is satisfied and proceeds to shake herself once again; her glossy coat is a muddied mess with fibers of green clinging to her shaggy mane, tail, and disheveled black coat.
A hot breath snorts out her nose, and she looked out among the open quietly. Her ears curved inward dramatically, but the tips didn’t quite touch and her build was midway between thick and stocky, and yet she was petite and thin. Overall, she was a good middle-ground of her stockier smaller mother who hailed from a hardier bloodline, and her tall, thin father who came from a desert-dwelling bloodline.
Âkulu - Filly - Mutt - Black Overo - Fell x Bluechild - Glory