“Would you two go find someone else to bother?” Castillon complained without any real malice in his voice, though his black-lined ears flicked back as he regarded his younger half-brothers, Lior and Lohan, with feigned irritation and somewhat narrowed eyes. The duo had been tailing him all morning and were engaging in their favorite game: seeing how long it took to irritate him enough to chase them across the Prairie. They’d bully into his walking path, or even nip at him, though never quite make contact with his skin. Most days the young snowcap stallion didn’t actually mind their play and would fall rather quickly into romping through the grassy hills of their home, laughter trailing in his wake.
But the change of the season was affecting him more than he understood. He was testy, and he found himself wanting to fight with his brothers more than he wanted to chase them in games of harmless tag. Today it was bothersome and no longer fun.
“We don’t want to find someone else,” Lior pointed out, his voice almost bored as he rolled his eyes. “We want to bother you.”
“Yeah? Well beat it. I’m not in a playing mood today.” He stomped a hoof down, salt-and-pepper tail snapping against his haunches. He hadn’t meant for his tone to come out as angrily as it had, but once it was there he couldn’t take it back. Castillon chose to double-down rather than apologize or look remotely guilty. He lifted his head and stuck his chest out. “I have leadership duties to attend to, I’m not your damn babysitter.”
“Geez,” Lohan huffed, “You really are in a mood today. C’mon Lior.” When Lohan looked back at Castillon, he appeared briefly disappointed, which only further aggravated him. Lior made a show of rolling his eyes again, but thankfully followed Lohan’s lead and the pair turned about and walked off, trailing through the yellowed autumn grasses. Castillon’s muscles loosened from how tense they had been and now that their backs were to him and their figures were retreating, he allowed himself to feel a little guilty for being so snappy with them.
He supposed the best thing to do was to actually do some sort of “leadership” duty. What that was, he wasn’t sure. The Prairie had been relatively quiet and his father was always here. There was little that Castillon was actually needed for, but he supposed it had been a few hours since he last trekked the shoreline, and turned himself toward the sea. Maybe the cool air rolling off the waves would calm whatever hot-bloodedness was coursing through his veins.
Shortly after cresting the hills toward the beach, he saw a figure. Castillon stopped dead in his tracks, briefly surprised to see anyone standing there at all. The Prairie didn’t exactly get many guests these days. Further excitement came when he recognized that it was a mare, immediately pushing out any irritation he’d been feeling just moments before. She was quite pretty, even from this distance. Castillon let himself briefly admire the way her coat caught the autumn sun and how she seemed to seamlessly blend into the Prairie’s autumn palette.
He did notice, however, that she kept looking back behind her. Castillon frowned, narrowing his eyes at the surf, expecting to see another head bobbing among the waters, but saw no-one. Who was she looking for?
Deciding to waste no more time, Castillon picked his black knees up high as he made his way through the grasses and toward her, moving at a lofty gait, though he held his head high with some pride and was quite clearly showing off his developing figure. Ever a showboat, if there was a pretty lady present he wanted to appear as his most presentable self. He chose to approach her head-on, so she’d have plenty of time to see him in her sights.
“Hello!” He called out to her once he was close enough, sure to pair his greeting with his signature charming smile. Clueless and dumb as his father had been at his age, he tilted his head as he looked curiously at her. “What brings you to the Prairie?”
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