until the lion learns how to write

Bacardi's observation about the Forest lacking the beauty of Tinuvel earned a small half-smile from the somber grey mare and she nodded, willing to believe him. She still dreamed of the way the grass - made brittle and brown by the first few weeks of autumn - used to dance and rustle in the fierce northern winds. The way the whole of her home could be transformed in a single night by a single storm, allowing all of its residents to wake up to a wonderland of winter. She was not sure she would ever miss the restless pawing, the constant fight for sustenance, but she missed the rest of it dearly.

It just wasn't the same without her family.

Lakota followed the handsome painted stallion to the Forest, but kept her thoughts to herself on the journey. It was hard to judge someone based on only a few minutes of interaction, but Bacardi seemed kind... if a little strange. She was still trying to wrap her head around the strategy of offering a mare freedom from his claim in the same breath he invited them home. Almost as though he were not confident of his worth. This was a rather large supposition, and Lakota knew it, but it was something to muse over as her legs churned through the icy late-autumn ocean.

By the time they arrived on the Forest's gently sloping shore, Lakota was more than ready to be done with swimming through the chilly water, which was - strangely - far more cold than standing in a snowstorm had ever felt to her. If everything went well here, she hoped that she would not have to swim again for a very, very long time.

The sight that greeted her eyes was imposing in a way she hadn't expected; backlit as it was, the Forest seemed impenetrable and mysterious, it's dark depths preventing her from really seeing it. She slid a little closer to Bacardi without realizing it, her eyes and ears still fixated ahead. For all it's mystery, what she could see was beautiful. The slanted afternoon light cast thin rays through the uppermost boughs, freckling the beach in front of them with small patches of warm gold. The upper rim of the trees were different from what she was used too, too. They were rounded, instead of pointed, and glowed a glorious rainbow of different colors from deep reds to bright yellows to lingering spots of green. It made her smile automatically, and it was only when the painted stallion spoke again that she looked away.

"For now," she teased at his prompt, her eyes sparkling with mischief. The excitement of a new beginning had done much to outshine her doubts and fears, especially considering Bacardi had been kind to her from the beginning. "Looks can be deceiving, you know," she teased again, her voice more gentle. Her gaze flicked back to the view before them again briefly as she finished her thought, her voice low. "But it is beautiful."

His soft chuckle rang in her ears as she followed along behind him, staying close to his side as he began to show her his home. "Why did you pick this place?" She murmured as they walked, her gaze skimming across what little she could see of his face before returning to the forest around her.

young mare // Mutt // gray // 15 hh