Lavender

softspoken in the dead of night

Lavender couldn't be sure when she'd last seen her eldest son. Not long a yearling, Kythri had been even more unsettled in the Prairie than Lavender herself had - and in the days after the birth of her twins - after she struggled through each birth, her delicate body almost giving up, she had hardly been able to sleep, and felt guilty for not being more alert. But the swim so late in her pregnancy had worn her out even before the birth, and she could not help but worry what would happen to her three foals if something happened to her.

As kind as Lir was, he shared no blood with her sons and daughter. Would he, in time, view Kythri as a threat? Would the Lagoon target Lir in turn, taking from him as he had taken from them? He was only one stallion to protect a herd, and if danger the likes of which had ravaged the neighboring Savanna at the turn of the season was to befall the Prairie... No, Lavender couldn't afford to think about the what ifs, not when she had more pressing matters to worry about in the present - an unknown stallion's recent arrival, and Kythri having gone missing.

There was something about the openness of the land, and so much sky above with it's everchanging, turbulent weather, that made even the small mare feel so seen, and a far cry from the marshy Lagoon and the forested mountain valley that she had been born in, across the sea. Even night brought o relief, her pale body often glowing in the light of the moon, and Lavender could feel the faint hope she'd had slipping away from her like an outgoing tide. If her son was still within the Prairie bounds, he would have returned to her as the sun set, because he knew how she disliked the dark. But there was only her, the slumbering twins nestled in a patch of long grass over which she stood watch, and the scattered herd nearby.

"Kythri,” her son's name came out as a half-sob. He was so young, still, and what if he was lost, or hurt? So wound up with anxiety and guilt, her chest felt so tight, like a weight was pressing down on her, it hurt to breathe. Lavender felt like a failure, unable to go in search of her yearling, and she could only pray that he wherever he was, he was safe.