He’d come!
There had been no doubt in her mind that he would but she had not been able to go to him the moment he’d arrived within the borders of this beautiful and bountiful land. Her own gregarious nature and need to bring more and more back to fill the halls of wisteria and red maple had gotten the best of her and kept her from seeking him out immediately. Solace had seen to that, from what Keeper had seen at a distance and knew the Caretaker would welcome him as warmly as she herself would. Still, there had been an odd longing her chest to find him at some point in time when the moment deemed itself just right. But that moment had never come for her.
Worse, the bear had smelled the cougar in her land. Had caught enough of his markers about the borders to know that he was a challenge to her. Predator versus predator… Keeper had to wrest the more savage nature of the bear to heel and it had proven exhausting because the bear had marked enough of this land as hers that she had become just as territorial as the cougar had. Sometimes the bear came behind him and left her scat or claw marks on the bark of a tree over his as challenge to him despite Keeper’s best efforts to temper the bear’s nature. Part of her has feared what might happen if the two of them met as anything but horses.
That fear has kept her from him as much as her duties to Hyaline have.
So too, has the bear’s need to hibernate which saps the strength from her in the wintertime. Never has Keeper napped so much in her life since she gained this new trait. The first winter had been the worst because she fought what was happening - not comprehending until she had no choice but to realize that each time she woke in the bear’s den or beside a kill, that it had been her all along. Now she was used to it. Could stomach the kills better because she knew that was how the bear survived as long as she could keep it from going after the foals that came in the springtime.
Plus the bear favored salmon above else so she kept it close to the lake to feed off the surplus of silver fish therein. Even now, in the bear form that snores and sleeps, she dreams of that first meal after awakening and how it will be delicious fish-meat and delicate bones to pick her teeth clean with. But the mare’s dreams begin to intrude upon the bear’s, disturbing the nature of it’s hibernating rest until the bear shifts back into the mare unbeknownst to either of them. Keeper the mare dreams of the cougar and how she has caught glimpses of him moving up and down the mountain slopes and beneath the burning blazes of red maples caught in the throes of autumn.
How could she not dream of him?
Cougar or stallion, he could not hide from her in Hyaline (or anywhere). She knew him and knew his smell better than most. Even the bear knew it, despite the misgivings it still had about the big cat being in its territory. But bear had become mare and even in the midst of sleep and dream, the mare couldn’t help but say his name in a sleepy rumble not at all aware that he lurked just outside her den in search of her.
@[Ryan] too tired and lazy for pretty html but yay, RYAN! <333