Her trek was silent, almost resigned as the young maiden left everything she knew behind. When you're banished by your king, you leave -- unless there's something or someone worth staying for, which there wasn't. It doesn't matter how old and batshit he's become, or how everyone has their doubts about the decision. It doesn't even matter that you're his daughter. You leave.
Maybe to others it wasn't so cut and dry, but it was for the spotted mare. She was almost.. relieved to leave. Was that the right word? The last couple of years had been so difficult to bear. Her mother died shortly after her first birthday, and the yearling had been left to dote on her father. Whatever he needed, she provided. And that was all well and good until he started failing to remember things.
Maybe it could have been different, but instead of being scared and confused, her king was angry and bitter. From the outside looking in, it was like he lost his mind. He gradually forgot conversations, who his allies were, and who his loved ones were. Kipling had taken it all in stride -- the verbal abuse, the condescension, the belittling, the loneliness -- despite how scary it had gotten toward the end.
..Maybe relieved was a good word for how she felt upon diving into the ocean and swimming away from it all.
When her hooves found purchase on the shores of the island, the leopard mare heaved herself up from the water and nearly stumbled with the effort. Ears pinned against her poll before she laid down for a little while. Not flat out, no no. That would be stupid, especially if she fell asleep by accident, but she stayed there awhile yet, considering everything she left behind and everything that could be ahead.
Upon rising to finally leave the beach, Kipling felt a little lighter. Everything that had plagued her the last few years was somewhere out across the sea, and it likely would not follow her here. The maiden was grateful for it all to be over, to start over. Sure, some of it would stay with her, but hopefully in a way she could structure for her own betterment over time.
Kipling wandered for a time before finally arriving at the waterfalls she had seen from far away. To her, it was an amazing thing to watch the water fall from such a height and cascade toward the waiting pool and rocks below. There hadn't been anything like it whence she'd come. A smile finally lightened her expression, and she felt happiness and wonder again for the first time in a long while.
It was then that the spotted female looked around, wondering what else was around her, and spotted someone not too far off. Kipling didn't know how well they could see her, but she flashed a bright, welcoming smile anyway. The maiden turned her gaze from them and bent to lip at the short grass beneath her hooves. She wouldn't turn away a conversation should they approach, but she'd learned not to try and force conversation on another.
Kipling
mare . 4 years . bay near leopard appaloosa . araapaloosa . 16 hands