The stallion’s height aids his strides length, and although he runs, Regret does not give it his all. He thinks himself safe, that all he must do is disappear among the landscape as he has done his whole life. It is her voice, raised above the pounding of the heart and hooves, that makes Regret realize he has been followed. For a few strides he does add the extra effort; the power in his legs and the wind filling his lungs demanding he race faster. But he lets an eye roll back, to glance at his pursuer, and sees it is only the filly he had spotted before. No mother or father with the intent to kill him for getting too close to their precious child.


Without warning, Regret stops all momentum. His rump tucks towards the ground, hind legs digging into the loose earth while his front legs brace to keep him upright. As the stallion slides to a halt, he whirls on the filly with pinned ears and wild green eyes. Although he had no intentions of hurting her, his posture might have been considered imposing as the dust whirls around them like a cloud. Whether she had slingshot passed his sudden stop, or ran straight into him, Regret planted his hooves into the dirt as if he were now apart of it.


“Pest!” He yells at her, nearly startled by the sound of his own voice. Regret hasn’t heard it since he was a child, and it had changed drastically since then. It nearly felt like he was listening to a stranger speak for him. “Go back!” Regret didn’t know what he would do if she didn’t listen. Panic still swirled in the pit of his gut, threatening to bubble up and spill over. He couldn’t let her be his downfall; the reason he got caught and was banished from the only home he had ever known.



REGRET