The night is not a welcome time to Jude: she is round and full in the way only new mothers can be.
Around her the cold Beqanna darkness ebbs and flows, seemingly inhaling and exhaling. The shadows have their own life - each leaf glistening in the moonlight hiding something unseen. Whether it be a creature or just soil, the ignorance makes it nearly unbearable. Jude shakes out her pastel mane, watching her cool breathe as it blasts from her maw in hot, gray puffs. She thought acting normal, adjusting her body as if there is no possibility of another around, would make the darkness feel more sane (it does not).
As if the news of the plague is not enough of a stressor, Jude has found herself lost on an unforgiving night. She has heard whispers of areas of Beqanna she has not explored, and it would appear that she is now discovering them. Foolish: that is what she feels she is, having succumbed to the antsiness of holing up in Tephra and venturing out despite the ever-impending threat of disease. Who knows what will happen if she falls ill before giving birth - or what will happen if she falls ill and passes it on to her child. Still not moving, Jude closes her eyes and breathes.
God damn this cursed pregnancy; god damn this cursed land and its cursed charmers.
A few paces ahead lies a clearing. The pegasus moves forward with caution, poking just her head between the trees to scope out what may be hiding within. Seeing nothing - and feeling wildly uncomfortable without cover - she begins to hurry across the open space. Jude is nearly all the way across when she senses it (or hears it - she is unsure of what ancient instinct pricks her mind). Slowly, so painfully slowly, she lifts her gaze to the wavering foliage above.
How stupid of her to not notice something so large hanging in such delicate branches.
In the darkness, she cannot quite tell what it is - for the moonlight glints off of its talons, but also reveals its mostly equine features. Jude takes a moment, but soon realizes that above her rests a foal: eyes wide and curious, not predatory but not exactly inviting. The mare takes a few steps back. An instinct (motherly, if she would admit that to herself) takes hold.
Jude peers back at the child.
@[Myrkari]