as many times as I blink, I'll think of you tonight
palebird
She was used to getting looks, to hearing murmurs and sad sighs, to getting chased away, to falling and trying to pick herself back up. She had learned to keep her head low and out of sight, to keep away from those that only wished to see her fall.
This, however, hadn't hardened her heart. She was supple and pliable, full of love and generosity. The fact she only had three legs had become a part of her life now, and she embraced it. It made her unique, and all the teasing in the world wouldn't change that. She functioned as any other horse would, and she used the bullying from when she was younger to make her strong, whilst also making sure she never harbored resentment. She knew how hard it was for others to accept differences, to accept the strange and unknown. She didn't hold their judgments against them - they simply didn't know any better.
She knew her strengths and her limitations. She couldn't run nearly as fast as others, and she got tired if the fast pace kept up too long, but she was resilient and sharp-minded. She was a mother at heart and hoped that she would find pure, unadulterated love, and that she would have a little one all her own one day. Wishful thinking, she knew, but there was nothing she loved more than to imagine a life where she was a lover and a mother. She's a gentle soul, truly, and there wasn't a thing she wouldn't do to help someone else.
She thought about all this as she grazed in the field, choosing to lay down and graze in the area around her; her front leg was aching and she couldn't help but enjoy the way the warm summer grass felt on her body and the sweet taste of it, the way the breeze that teased her mane and the sun shone through the leaves to ghost over her body. She would occasionally think of her time back in the Dale and feel a pang of loneliness, but she knew she had done good work there and that her sadness would pass and be filled with a sense of peace instead. So she grazed and so she rested, ears flicking about lazily, aware of everything but worried about nothing at all.
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