Azar
The forest was dark in the early dawn. Each overlarge tree materialized from the earthen shadows, but also created its own deeper shadows, as the boughs high above stretched to the gradually lightening sky. The thinned clouds there were flared with rich pinks and corals, the only hint of the climbing sun, spaced as widely apart as the sentinel trees below. A hush was settled over the area, and even the morning birds still rested peacefully.
Only the bay roan foal seemed to be awake, tucked safely away within a dense thicket of brush. She lay where her mother left her, limbs folded neatly beneath her, swaddled in the darkness. Her head lifted, just another silhouette melding with the others, and looked through the blackness around her. A sound may have woken her, but it wasn't heard again. Still, she held silent, waiting. Hunger clawed at her belly, ignored for now in her caution. Her mother would come to feed her again after a while, and she had quickly learned patience.
The filly waited a few long moments more, and satisfied that she was alone, retreated. Her head naturally tucked back where it had been before, sheltered by the rim of her wing. It was warm and quiet there, safe. She shifted a little, settling in once more. The soft debris beneath her rustled quietly with her movements. She sighed gently, then again she waited, listening carefully for anomalies in forest's dawning atmosphere.
There it was, a suspect patter; a stirring close by. Her head raised swiftly and stilled. Little ears perched forward, fixated. The darkness had yet to lift, though it was slowly ebbing into tones of deep gray. She thought she saw a shadow moving, shifting within the forest as if it were part of it. The urge to stand battled at her walls of patience, instinct pushing her to desire a better stance for fleeing. But her air of caution was stronger, and she held as stationary as the thick trees of the forest.
Her eyes never stopped scanning, though she did not turn her head, leaving most her efforts of discernment to her sensitive ears. Scents brushed through her nose with each inhalation, but she couldn't grasp the outlier, the tickling stranger-smell hiding within all the others. Her ear swiveled right first, at another noise, and very slowly her head followed and paused. Waiting.
Only the bay roan foal seemed to be awake, tucked safely away within a dense thicket of brush. She lay where her mother left her, limbs folded neatly beneath her, swaddled in the darkness. Her head lifted, just another silhouette melding with the others, and looked through the blackness around her. A sound may have woken her, but it wasn't heard again. Still, she held silent, waiting. Hunger clawed at her belly, ignored for now in her caution. Her mother would come to feed her again after a while, and she had quickly learned patience.
The filly waited a few long moments more, and satisfied that she was alone, retreated. Her head naturally tucked back where it had been before, sheltered by the rim of her wing. It was warm and quiet there, safe. She shifted a little, settling in once more. The soft debris beneath her rustled quietly with her movements. She sighed gently, then again she waited, listening carefully for anomalies in forest's dawning atmosphere.
There it was, a suspect patter; a stirring close by. Her head raised swiftly and stilled. Little ears perched forward, fixated. The darkness had yet to lift, though it was slowly ebbing into tones of deep gray. She thought she saw a shadow moving, shifting within the forest as if it were part of it. The urge to stand battled at her walls of patience, instinct pushing her to desire a better stance for fleeing. But her air of caution was stronger, and she held as stationary as the thick trees of the forest.
Her eyes never stopped scanning, though she did not turn her head, leaving most her efforts of discernment to her sensitive ears. Scents brushed through her nose with each inhalation, but she couldn't grasp the outlier, the tickling stranger-smell hiding within all the others. Her ear swiveled right first, at another noise, and very slowly her head followed and paused. Waiting.
@[SamShine] @[Kristin]