The first time, it was the blue of his eyes that caught her off-guard. Now, it seems, that it is her turn.
Perhaps he didn't hear her approach over the rushing current of the water, maybe this unusually warm autumn day put him in mind of summer. The sun was pleasant, after all. And the day, despite the chill at the beginning of it, had long thawed out with the afternoon. Sunbeams broke through the colors of the leaves that rustled above them and glinted strikingly off the copper-coat of the young stallion. When he turned his head sharply to look back at her, they caught the fiery-undertones of it and illuminated his flaxen mane. The youth frowned at her while she considered him (and there was much to consider - the horns, the pale hair growing from his chin, his blue eyes).
The horned colt turned around to face her and Aletta took a few more steps forward, not finding anything in his expression that told her otherwise. There was nothing there that silently said her presence was unwelcome.
She glanced down briefly, frowning slightly at the crack in his hooves. Did they hurt? Did they give him some sure-footed ability that normal hooves did not? Raising her dark eyes to look up at him, she gave a shake of silver head. "They're usually not worth the pandering," she half-joked with a dismissive shrug of her shoulders. But the bob-tailed youth hadn't immediately apologized and that earned her approval. There was no sense for it, she thought. No need, not when he had assumed that he had been alone.
When he bowed his head - perhaps with the apology that she assumed he didn't need to make - Aletta tilted hers again. But the drop of his makes it easier to get a good look at him, considering the way he already towered over her smaller frame. Her brow furrowed slightly at the intensity of his eyes but then Aletta cleared the thought away, lifting her gaze to stare up at him. "Wraith worked well enough in the past," she said, feeling slightly nostalgic as the ghost of a grin haunted at the edges of her mouth. A shade of her old humor emerging.
And then she shook her head, reminding herself that she no longer drifted in and out with the seasons. Much as she had earlier implied to the flaxen-haired stallion, they were in company. Formal names was where polite conversation normally started and the younger horse gave her a strong impression of being just that. "Aletta," she finally offers, pricking her ears forward as she listened to the sound of the water running behind the Taigan. It's clean, spring-like scent seemed to brighten this part of the woods.
It makes her consider this forest again and she wonders if there is something - more of that Beqanna Magic perhaps - that makes things grow so tall here, trees and horses alike. Like the youthful example in front of her. "And you? Do you have more than one to go by?"
we turned our back on ordinary from the start
show me the sky falling down
photo credit to charlie---x