A call drew his attention, causing his soft pink-lined ears to turn in the direction it’d beckoned before his gaze followed suit. He had known it was Daire before he was even looking her way, and already his heart somehow felt both light and heavy. Every day Nephilim, Jasper, and Lohan left the Prairie shores to continue their search, he found himself hoping for good news to follow like he had never hoped before. Not only did he miss Vervain and worry for her too, but to see Daire so distraught and being powerless to ease her pain tore him apart inside.

He did everything he could not to show her just how upset he was, tried not to let her (or any of the herd) see the moments he broke down into tears, when the worry and guilt grew too heavy to hold at bay; Daire had enough pain to suffer, he would not put her in a position where she felt she also had to coddle his.

Zevulun’s body had already turned toward her, pale hooves stepping over the short-grown grass to bring him across the gap and then, throwing his weight forward, he pulled himself up the slope and trotted a few more steps with the momentum before coming to a stop in front of her. A low breath slipped from his lips and brushed across her face as he reached, automatic, to gently touch his lips to her neck. For a moment he let that be their greeting, just the touch and the silence, but he knew they couldn’t stay that way forever.

He pulled his cheek from her skin and glanced at the swell of her stomach, another mix of emotions churning inside him at the sight of their unborn child. He could see Daire was quite heavily pregnant and, having been a present father enough times in his life, knew it must be time soon for their child to be born. While some mares had hidden talk of their pregnancy to him, Avalon hadn’t - the first mare he had fallen in love with and started a family. Zevulun could still remember, all these years later, of scavenging the Tinuvel mountainside for herbs to help her with her pain and discomfort. The closer the time was to the birth, the harder carrying the child became. With everything else Daire was also balancing, he had to imagine it wasn’t getting any easier for her. “This one isn’t making things any easier, hm?” He asked with a hushed voice and a small, sympathetic smile.