Most days, it was all Kalirrhoe could do to barely keep up with the spotted roadrunner masquerading as her son. Today had not one of those days. Indivar had been on the run since he first untangled his gangly stretch of legs. As such, the early morning had been spent almost literally running loops around his mother. It was when he tried rebounding off of various rocks and the like, nearly ricocheting back into her and trampling his newborn brother, that she finally told him he could wander farther -- "but not too far. Whinnying distance, Indi. Indi? Whinnying distance!" He'd scampered off in a hurry before she could change her mind.
It was then that Indivar did a very reckless thing. He did not stay within whinnying distance. In fact, he didn't even stay in the Hills, much less stay on Salem. Not that he'd really been outside of Salem in the first place. Still, he jumped into the frigid cold waters of the sea and struck out for new lands. He hadn't anticipated what a long swim it was. Being only a yearling and having not swum before, it was remarkable that he made remotely close to where he had envisioned from the Salem shoreline. The dripping youngster looked back once to kind of remember his landing spot and then ran on northward.
Now, the darkly spotted leopard colt was racing flat-out among the hillocks and knolls near the southern bay of the Meadow. His coat and hair were dry within an hour as he raced along. That imagination of his was frantically conjuring up images as his hooves scrambled over the shortgrass terrain. The grasses tickling his heels could easily be a snake striking at him! The clouds: a winged Gila monster leering down at him, waiting for him to crest the next hill! The colt bucked rebelliously, daring the vaporous fiend to even try to scoop him up.
It would be with joyous laughter that Indivar would pull himself up short. His eyes glanced eagerly out over the water of the bay and peered south. He could see a greening island much closer than the shadow of Salem far beyond. He wondered if that was Atlantis or Luthien. Indivar had heard of them in passing and thus did not know which was where. He would look around curiously now. Surely today, when he was unfettered with his watchful dam, would be a day that he could truly meet or play with somebody new. Now to find them!
indivar*