02-08-2021, 01:31 PM
It hadn't seemed like a big deal, walking home by themselves. Mama and Papa would be happy they'd been decisive, and be even happier to see them safe at home without any help at all. It was what he'd whispered to Cheri on the long walk back, bolstering her confidence with words and gentle echoes of home. Memories shared between the twins as easily as reassuring touches.
Then they'd gotten home, and it was still dark, and he'd run into a new relation. Reave, a boy his own age, but who belonged to Gramma Lilli. He was okay. It was at least nice to know that there was another potential playmate in these woods, when he got tired of playing with the girls. That meeting had been a side track, but he didn't realize it until the colts had parted ways and he realized Cheri hadn't returned yet.
He made childish disgruntled noises. He'd already had to find his black-coated sister in the dark once, and was really struggling with making himself do it again so soon. They were home now, she couldn't be far. His stomach grumbled. Finding food seemed like a much more rewarding task right now than looking for a sister that was bound to go walking off again as soon as she turned up.
He bumped along, (taking grim pleasure in a stream of words he knew would earn him a sharp scolding of his mother heard him say them) when he collided head on with a solid tree trunk. He tried to kick the offending trunk, missed entirely, and promptly decided it wasn't worth any more of his energy. That was when the wave of Anguish hit him like a load of wet snow.
His knees went weak with the weight of the feeling, eyes wet with sudden tears. Oh, that couldn't be good. Ears quivering, the gangly colt very suddenly and very desperately wanted his mother. More than he wanted food, and a good long nap. A thin little bleat fell from him into the darkness, which had gone from exciting to terrifying in very short order.
He began to walk, half stumbling, weaving between trees and tangled roots blindly. Searching with growing anxiety that only deepened as he moved. The emotion overwhelmed him, and for a moment he froze in place, the will to keep trying dying a violent death inside him.
He barely registered the voices at first. They seemed sad too, as sad as he was feeling, so that he hardly recognized them as existing outside himself. Not until his belly griped again with hunger did he lift his head and recognize the voices for what they were. "Mama...?" He asked softly, too softly to be heard from this distance. It was her distress he'd been drowning in. What was the matter? What had gotten his mother so heartbroken?
"Mama, what's wrong?" He asked, emerging from the night-shrouded forest to where the trio of grown ups had gathered. Mama and Papa had made it back, he was very glad to see, though it seemed like Papa waa holding himself wrong. Mama Borderline was there too, close by his mother's shaking shoulder. He brushed up against her other side, eyes wide with concern.
@[Yanhua] @[Borderline]
Then they'd gotten home, and it was still dark, and he'd run into a new relation. Reave, a boy his own age, but who belonged to Gramma Lilli. He was okay. It was at least nice to know that there was another potential playmate in these woods, when he got tired of playing with the girls. That meeting had been a side track, but he didn't realize it until the colts had parted ways and he realized Cheri hadn't returned yet.
He made childish disgruntled noises. He'd already had to find his black-coated sister in the dark once, and was really struggling with making himself do it again so soon. They were home now, she couldn't be far. His stomach grumbled. Finding food seemed like a much more rewarding task right now than looking for a sister that was bound to go walking off again as soon as she turned up.
He bumped along, (taking grim pleasure in a stream of words he knew would earn him a sharp scolding of his mother heard him say them) when he collided head on with a solid tree trunk. He tried to kick the offending trunk, missed entirely, and promptly decided it wasn't worth any more of his energy. That was when the wave of Anguish hit him like a load of wet snow.
His knees went weak with the weight of the feeling, eyes wet with sudden tears. Oh, that couldn't be good. Ears quivering, the gangly colt very suddenly and very desperately wanted his mother. More than he wanted food, and a good long nap. A thin little bleat fell from him into the darkness, which had gone from exciting to terrifying in very short order.
He began to walk, half stumbling, weaving between trees and tangled roots blindly. Searching with growing anxiety that only deepened as he moved. The emotion overwhelmed him, and for a moment he froze in place, the will to keep trying dying a violent death inside him.
He barely registered the voices at first. They seemed sad too, as sad as he was feeling, so that he hardly recognized them as existing outside himself. Not until his belly griped again with hunger did he lift his head and recognize the voices for what they were. "Mama...?" He asked softly, too softly to be heard from this distance. It was her distress he'd been drowning in. What was the matter? What had gotten his mother so heartbroken?
"Mama, what's wrong?" He asked, emerging from the night-shrouded forest to where the trio of grown ups had gathered. Mama and Papa had made it back, he was very glad to see, though it seemed like Papa waa holding himself wrong. Mama Borderline was there too, close by his mother's shaking shoulder. He brushed up against her other side, eyes wide with concern.
@[Yanhua] @[Borderline]