castillon of the prairie.

Shame festered into anger and stuck, which wasn’t a familiar emotion that Castillon was forced to sit so long with. Normally when he became angered he had an easier time than most young stallions knowing how to set the rage aside and focus in the way his father had taught him growing up. But now he was learning what the taste of defeat was like and that he could not protect everyone as best he thought he should. There were going to be fights he was going to lose and risks his family would suffer become of it.

Nursing every ache, bruise, and scrape only increased his irritation. His black tail lashed out behind his white-covered haunches and he grunted under his breath as he gingerly shifted his weight, taking pressure off the front left, which he’d somehow tweaked or injured in some way during the scuffle. Fear of hurting it further had been what had forced him to yield to the Lagoon Boss, and his brown eyes briefly glared down at it as if it had some mind of its own and could have helped prevent the injury.

If he’d just been a little more careful… moved right instead of left…

Castillon cursed softly under his breath, again replaying the memories of the fight in his mind, picking apart everything he had done wrong and swearing he wouldn’t make that mistake again. His golden, black-lined ears twisted back as he grimaced. His brown eyes lifted away from his sore ankle to instead peer through the grasses, looking for Aura.

He hated Garmr even more for forcing her to make the choice. Castillon wanted to talk over her and demand he go, but he knew he’d already failed her once by losing this battle. What right did he have to make her choices for her?

He sighed, then caught sight of her and whistled softly out toward her. She was going to have to choose sooner rather than later, he imagined Garmr would not wait long and he would rather they could travel to the Lagoon, not the silver bay coming to the Prairie shores to collect his hard-won prize.

Castillon was careful as he put weight back down on his hoof, gait still somewhat hobbled as he favored the leg while he started slowly moving toward Aura to speak with her about the entire mess.

whoever makes my baby cry is gonna lose some teeth tonight
stallion ∙ mutt ∙ zevulun x riesling ∙ buckskin snowcap ∙ 15.3 hands