have you got colour in your cheeks? - anyone

[Finner]

As far as the size of life goes, Finner has perhaps the smallest one. His birthplace was within the quiet of the Gates, his upbringing approached alongside the whispering fronds of the willow trees, his friends resorted to his family members and the woodland creatures. Although his parents taught him the ways of social interaction and how to defend himself and how to be respectable and how to respect his elders, nothing can truly prepare him for the ways of the world.

He is a sheltered little boy and the world is a scary place.

Although he’s nearly a year old, he’s never explored beyond the borders of the Gates. His mother has certainly given him freedom – pointing which trails lead to where and what their destination is like – but he has been too scared (or perhaps too timid) to adventure too far away from his homeland. And yet, one day, he takes that first brave step into the world.

He follows the trail to the meadow (“A gathering place, where almost anyone can be found and gossip is all anyone can talk about,” his mother had said) and his ears prick when he begins to hear the river of voices in the distance. Suddenly his smoky grullo body is moving quicker, gangly legs nearly tripping over themselves in an attempt to reach a place harshly different from his bubbling streams and tall grassy clearings and comforting willow tree trails.

The colt breaks through the tree-line with a rush of fresh air rushing into his nostrils. However, his headlong running is stopped rapidly by the body of another. Rather than barreling into a clearing speckled with quietly gossiping horses, he has run right into the solid form of another horse. The crowded bustle of the meadow is something he wasn’t anticipating, even though his mother clearly told him it was a busy gathering place.

“I… Oh my gosh, I’m so” – he suddenly stops, eyes spying the ram horns atop the other’s head. His eyes widen until they seem to pop out of his head and all he can say is, “What are those?”

finner.
i always knew that i
would love you from afar