Glancing back over his shoulder he regarded the two mares with tired grey eyes. They were all that was left of the motley herd he had led out of the two-leggers pen several days ago. They had cheered up greatly, chattering softly to each, though still skittish at every sound and rustle of leaf close by. Yet one look at him and they relaxed again, as if they fully trusted him to keep them safe. Why? They didn't know him any better than he knew them... Why shouldn't he just turn and head off into the forest and leave them to their fate? With an almost resigned sigh, he knew he couldn't.. not after all the effort he had put into forcing them out of that cage, not when they gazed at him with such open, trusting expressions..
Irritated with himself and not even sure why, he snapped sharply at the feathers hanging down the side of his face. The constant movement and tugging on his still sore ear along with the annoying tickling sensation was probably part of the reason for his foul mood. That, and the fear that still prickled through his coat at every sound, no matter how un-two-legger-like it was. The pain of the rope still burned his neck, the sensation far too real for him to be able to forget it, and he kept seeing the shadow of the high fence through the trees, as if it had magically sprung up in the middle of the wilderness, yet when he went to investigate, there was nothing there.
The light tones of the two mares brought his wandering mind back and he glanced at them again. Thats right... one more stop then he was free..
After their escape through the broken wood, he had led the shivering, fearful band of soquili on a dead straight course, not caring where they were going just so long as it was away. When dawn had finally found them, they had scaled the valley sides and moved into the high country, taking refuge in a patch of thick forest that made it slow to travail, but felt safe to the trembling, worn stallion. After a brief nap while the storm blew the last of its fury away, he had then gathered the mares and their young and after much persuasion, had finally got them to tell him where they had come from, and once all were accounted for, he had set off on a mission of delivery. Picking the herds closest to where they were and working outwards.
It had been long and tiring, but as the herd shrank, they moved faster. Yet, now, with just the last two sisters left to deliver back to their families, he was feeling... sad? No, that wasn't it.. regretful? No... But there was something, small and weak, but persistent, nagging in the back of his mind. Noisy and slow they may have been... but the mares had felt.. good, somehow, right, moving along behind him, like a warm blanket of leaves on a cold night.
Shaking his head violently as the feather slapped him in the face with a gust of wind as propulsion, the stallion snapped at it, annoyed at the silliness of his own thoughts. A herd? Is that what he wanted? Someone to look after, to protect? Stop it Cloud. He grumbled, guilt suddenly pressing forwards like an insidious black cloud at the thought of 'Suli. The last thing you want, is a family pulling you back, no more travailing, no more racing the wind on the mountain tops, no more freedom. At least, thats what he told himself over and over in his head. Yet guilt remained, pulling his ears low, pressing against his chest with a physical weight, making his muscles feel achy and tired. He had promised her.... promised to wait for her, to be here with her... She would have thought he had abandoned her, left her without a word... surely, she must despise him now.
That thought drew a sharp pain deep inside him, settled like a black cloud in his mind.
Depressed and worn from the loss of the beautiful russet mare, and from the harrowing experience at the hands of the two-leggers, the stallion pushed on through the landscape, hurrying to return the two mares and then escape, escape into the no-where place of wind and speed and adrenalin, where nothing but the roaring of his blood in his ears and the pounding of his hooves on the land existed. The effort of speed leaving no room for conscious thought.
