The odds of successfully pulling off this stunt had already been quite narrow, but Peyote still felt the disappointment as the dark stallion charged in between him and his lovely prize. With both dark-lines ears pulled flat against his nape, Peyote dug a hoof at the ground and launched forward into the fray, a madman all too gleeful to join a fight, regardless of who was on the other end.
This is my mare, you will meet your end! The herd stallion bellowed, but the words may as well have hit Peyote and rolled right off his skin for as much attention as he paid them. Still, they rattled around in his head as his body fell into something akin to auto-pilot, as used to fighting as he was. Physical blows were the only language his parents had ever spoken to him with, after all.
My mare… my mare…
Not yours, was the implication. Peyote found rather quickly that regardless of whether or not he cared to covet his own prizes, he did not like being told the thing he wanted belonged to someone else. A hard snort was expelled from his nostrils as he spun his body to kick outward, using the power in his legs and hips to try and land a harder blow than any bites would have.
Then, the mare bit at his neck, catching a few strands of dark hair that ripped from his crest as he yanked his head away, trying to keep his eyes, ears, and neck from her snapping jaws; if he could spin, he would kick at her instead. Still, the rallying spirit of the mare meant it was two-on-one and the narrowing odds had gotten even slimmer. Peyote knew when to admit his failure and broke away from them both, throwing his body at the first break he saw and the first empty path ahead of him. He wouldn’t stop running the entire way through the Bay, back the way he’d come, and back into the icy waters swirling between their home and Crossing Isle.
For now, they had won.
Yet when Peyote pulled himself ashore and glanced back over his rump at the island he’d left behind, heart still beating hard in his chest, he remembered the mare and how pretty rage had looked on her face.
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