Elliana isn’t in the Meadow for pleasantries today. She scowls at grasses, kicks up dirty ground when she dislikes their taste. Today could not be any worse - today is the day she was certain she was pregnant. Today, she felt a first kick and cursed.
Maybe it’ll be a boy? She can only hope so - boys don’t get in trouble when they fool around with someone, they just go home (or not and have some more), and they can sleep peacefully knowing that their lives may never change. Boys can gather a shitload of mares and fool them all long enough to knock them up in one season, and then hoard all those mothers-to-be in their little ‘herd’.
But if there’s one thing in her life she is certain of, is that she is not a herd mare.
She’d always been a wanderer, and wasn’t going to give it up for the baby. She’d cursed silently, but as the day progressed she had realized that she didn’t really mind the child she was growing; she just didn’t want to be tied down to one place. But she could take the foal with her. Somewhere, anywhere - as long as it wasn’t his father’s stupid herd.
And so she tears up grass despite everything; after all, she eats for two now and should probably build some reserves. At least that’s what she has heard other mares say, the chit-chatting ones with a bunch of foals at their heels.
But of course her day wasn’t getting better. No. He has to go and spoil it for her. Hearing his typical snort for attention, smelling him - it’s almost enough to make her leave right away.
She doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction, so she pretends he isn’t here.
He’s not an idiot. Not, whatever they seemed to think. The grey stud is a handsome one, and it’s not his fault that he has an open relationship with everyone. The trouble, he thinks - the trouble is that nobody asks until it is too late, and the deed is done.
Then, and only then, do they start complaining.
Well, not all of them, but Elliana surely had.
He figured maybe she wouldn’t be pregnant, maybe she just didn’t like him enough. At first, anyway. But when some others he had met (and, erm, recruited) that season turned out to be expecting, he had given in to his instincts and went looking for her.
From a ways away, he snorts to catch her attention, but the beautiful but fierceful mare doesn’t hear him. A frown follows, and he walks closer. They really have to talk about this.
”Elli. You’re pregnant, aren’t you? Won’t you come home with me?”
Maybe it’ll be a boy? She can only hope so - boys don’t get in trouble when they fool around with someone, they just go home (or not and have some more), and they can sleep peacefully knowing that their lives may never change. Boys can gather a shitload of mares and fool them all long enough to knock them up in one season, and then hoard all those mothers-to-be in their little ‘herd’.
But if there’s one thing in her life she is certain of, is that she is not a herd mare.
She’d always been a wanderer, and wasn’t going to give it up for the baby. She’d cursed silently, but as the day progressed she had realized that she didn’t really mind the child she was growing; she just didn’t want to be tied down to one place. But she could take the foal with her. Somewhere, anywhere - as long as it wasn’t his father’s stupid herd.
And so she tears up grass despite everything; after all, she eats for two now and should probably build some reserves. At least that’s what she has heard other mares say, the chit-chatting ones with a bunch of foals at their heels.
But of course her day wasn’t getting better. No. He has to go and spoil it for her. Hearing his typical snort for attention, smelling him - it’s almost enough to make her leave right away.
She doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction, so she pretends he isn’t here.
He’s not an idiot. Not, whatever they seemed to think. The grey stud is a handsome one, and it’s not his fault that he has an open relationship with everyone. The trouble, he thinks - the trouble is that nobody asks until it is too late, and the deed is done.
Then, and only then, do they start complaining.
Well, not all of them, but Elliana surely had.
He figured maybe she wouldn’t be pregnant, maybe she just didn’t like him enough. At first, anyway. But when some others he had met (and, erm, recruited) that season turned out to be expecting, he had given in to his instincts and went looking for her.
From a ways away, he snorts to catch her attention, but the beautiful but fierceful mare doesn’t hear him. A frown follows, and he walks closer. They really have to talk about this.
”Elli. You’re pregnant, aren’t you? Won’t you come home with me?”