The call Pacific Rim lets out at the gathering storm excites Fell, as though it had been a challenge directed at him. He feels no aggression toward the painted mare as he joins her on the beach, but his muscles are jumpy and coiled as though ready to take off at any moment. As though the two of them might run the storm off themselves, send it skittering back over the frothing waves to pick on someone its own size.

She leans into his touch, and Fell responds with a contented little whicker sound, his nostrils fluttering faintly against her cheek. The sound and the heat of his breath are whisked away at once by the rising wind, and Fell begins to feel flecks of sea spray on his skin as the froth gets picked up off the crests of the waves and sent over the beach in a misty flurry. Thunder rolls over the Bay, and the already-weak sunlight begins to dim as the heavy clouds crowd the sky. Fell catches Rim’s eye, and he can see something like appreciation in her expression, though he isn’t sure exactly why. He hasn’t kept anyone captive in the Bay since Svenja, even those claimed, so it would stand to reason that anyone still here is here of their own choice — but he still isn’t used to anyone actually enjoying it. There are benefits to living under the protection of someone like Fell, but that doesn’t mean they all have to be happy about it. Could she actually like it here, more than just feeling protected?

A bolt of lightning strikes somewhere over the water, and the light that briefly floods over them makes Fell flinch and screw his eyes shut. Blinking them open, he sees the soft matte surface of the water as the raindrops begin to fall and obliterate the glossy reflections on the waves. The sea is a roiling field, the impacting raindrops sending tiny leaping spouts of water like blades of grass. Another moment, and the downpour reaches them on the beach.

Fell shakes himself out of instinct as the first sheet of chilly rain hits his back, but of course it’s no use, and he is drenched in a moment. He tilts his head to the sky, letting it douse the flat pane of his face and plaster his forelock about his ears, which he flicks repeatedly out of reflex in response to the heavy drops. He doesn’t mind getting wet, but the flicking of his ears is involuntary, like blinking his eyes as the water saturates his dark lashes. After a moment of ear-flicking and blinking, he gives himself another shake, aware that he looks comical trying to rid himself of the water while he stands beneath the downpour and makes no effort to seek shelter.

He adjusts after this second shake, and the rain no longer prompts the reflexive movements to dry himself. He stands under the gale, content to be soaked, and watches Pacific Rim to gauge her reaction.

FELL

stallion. 16hh. black. marwari x. Rougaru x visurix.