Meadow

The more she thought about her men, the angrier she became; all Switch had ever wanted was for them to be as devoted to her as she had been to them since the beginning, and yet here she was. Her absence likely hadn't even been noted by anyone other than her youngest son, and he was not likely to shout it from the rooftops.

There was no one that would come looking for her, and the truth of that statement alone was grating. Switch knew she needed to find herself a purpose somewhere else, to find meaning in her life again; the problem being that her family was the meaning in her life, just as they were the main source of her pain. She couldn't leave them, but staying near them was eroding her heart all the same.

Her rage-grazing was interrupted by the sound of racing hoofbeats and her head popped up just in time to witness the gray mare's sudden arrival, her face contorted into bloodthirsty fury. Switch reacted instinctively, her fluted ears pricking and then pinning in the same breath even as her neck raised and a hoof lifted in warning. She had no idea who her would-be attacker was, but that hardly seemed important in the moment. It wouldn't be the first time she'd been attacked out of the blue and knowing these islands, likely not the last.

However, before either of them can strike the other, the gray calls off her charge and offers a stiff, apologetic dip of her head. Switch, however, did not move. The anger of her earlier run-in in the commons combined with the adrenaline of the almost-attack was making her vibrate in place, her muscles quivering beneath her silken black coat. Her jaws clenched against the urge to snap at the mare for her rudeness, to lay into her as she had Khajiit and Fiero time and time again, to pour out her anger into the new wounds she carved on their coats.

But she contained herself. Caged herself. Let the mare make her half-hearted jokes and worthless apologies, and kept her tongue caged through it all.

Even the mare's sidelong compliment earns only a faint sneer and a narrowing of her dark eyes. The shrub had only served as a stand-in, an unsatisfying outlet for the grief and anger that roiled in her chest.

"¿En serio?Are you serious?" Her words cut off with a bitter laugh and she tossed her head irritably, grinding her molars together before turning her sharp gaze back to the other mare. "Switch."

A moment later she went off again, annoyed at the whole situation. She had wanted company, yes, but not this kind of company. There was something about this gray mare that reminded her of Marceline's self-important carriage, a belief that they possessed some sort of power in this world, as if they were not just as mortal and breakable as she was. "Does it matter who I am?" The irritation made her thick accent even stronger, the words bubbling in her mouth with their haste to be delivered.

"You didn't approach for me, did you, witch?bruja?" She didn't wait for an answer. "So there's no need to play pretend." Her muzzle was shunted away from them again, pointedly indicating a direction that was away from where they were. "You can go."

mare // paso fino // black // 14.3hh // homeless // loveinspired