Saphris flinched at the sound of a voice. Her eyelashes fluttered, still dewy with tears, as she turned her head toward its source. There, poking through the curtain of the willow, was the face of a stallion. His fur was a deep, solid black, but the hair that hung about his face was silver as starlight. Where had he come from? The girl hadn't seen him when she'd darted in here or she might not have risked stopping.
Startled enough to be disarmed, the exotically-colored maiden found herself telling him exactly what was bothering her. The clear sound of her voice was muddled by the constriction crying had inflicted on her throat. "I've been keeping a secret.. from my mother." It sounded stupid, sillier even, when Saphris said it out loud, but she had never kept anything from her mom before. And never something this massive.
"It sounds stupid," Saphris murmured, almost admonishing herself. The sabino turned away from the male, hot now with embarrassment, which, of course, produced more tears. "But," she explained, cheek wet now as her eyes cast down to the water again, "I... I've never kept a secret from her before."