Keeper-
It has been days since she parted from the company of Tickaani and Ryan.
Tick had made her mind up to go with Caw and explore. Ryan… well, he hadn’t said much but Keeper had a niggling little worm of suspicion in her brain that he might just make his way here. Here, of course, being Hyaline. She tried not to believe that she looked for him sometimes, the buckskin and mulberry of him would stick out like a sore thumb amidst the summer splendor of the land but she found that her black eyes often searched and came up with nothing, not a hint nor a hair of him.
So she spent those days becoming accustomed to the bear now that she knew that’s what she could become. It still unnerved her, especially at night and morning when the bear took over and Keeper fought to retain some measure of herself inside it because Keeper-bear was different from Keeper-pony and the two still had some reconciling to do. It was hard to have a bear’s brain with a horse’s heart thumping away inside the great furry chest but somehow, the two managed a rhythm most of the time.
Other times, parts of the bear surfaced in Keeper the pony and she’d suddenly look down to find that she had great big claws instead of hooves that scratched themselves into the ground. Or a stub of a tail when her own tangled mess of one had been. Keeper had not yet become accustomed to these absurdities that still occurred without her control and if she saw Ryan again, she’d have to ask him how he managed to transition from horse to mountain lion so well and without making mistakes. He’d made it look so easy that day in the field! But it was time to push thoughts of the aloof stallion aside as the little mare took to climbing down from what had surely become her own private nook in Hyaline; a cave on the mountainside, that the bear had chosen.
Morning light spreads from each crook and corner until it has covered a good portion of the land. Enough for her to spot the little queen also up and about. Solace had become a friend too, a good one that had tolerated the arrival of the bear better than Keeper had. She can feel a smile taking shape on her mouth as she thinks of the little queen with a fondness that Keeper reserves for only those she calls her own, which in this case, is quite a few horses that have managed to make memorable impressions upon her that lead to fast easy friendships. From this distance though, it looks as if Solace is not alone…
Curious but not usually one to intrude, Keeper roams ever closer in arc that becomes smaller and more concise by the time her nose picks up the scents of Solace and the stranger who Keeper is elated to discover is no stranger at all! Ryan though, has gone still in a fashion that Keeper is familiar with instinct rises unbidden in her but the instinct is jumbled and confused - protect him or protect Solace? The bear prefers the latter and the mare prefers the former. Here is the trouble with reconciling the two halves of herself, so she blows out through her nostrils to let them both know that she is there .
She is still back far enough in case the bear explodes out of her because her control over it is still tenuous at best. The tension easing out of her as Ryan starts to relax and neither animal in her senses a reason to be wary and on guard. She has to give herself a little shake as he mentions is looking for her and well, here she is! Drawn to him and the shy smile on his mouth that makes Keeper smile in return as she finally joins the two of them at last, brushing her nose companionably against Solace’s shoulder before attempting to rub it against Ryan’s nose.
“You finally made it!” her elation is boundless as it bubbles up out of her in that moment.
not knowing how deep the woods are and lightless