It had been several days since the weary group had returned from the fight upon the mountain and while Mercy was still recovering from the spiders poison she seemed to be out of the woods now for the most part and just needed more time. Kale had taken it upon himself to ensure the young mare was taken careof. Likewise the injuries received by the two stallions seemed to be healing quite well..painful still, but getting better with each morning.
It was the rescued mare that he found himself worrying over the most, she had been grateful and undoubtedly happy to be reunited with her goat friend but had recently fallen into a bit of a depression. He suspected that she was still coming to terms with what had happened to her - no that she was no longer focused on simple survival her mind was beginning to process the trauma - it was not unheard of, he had seen it happen to many soldiers in his time. They made it through the battles just fine..only to fall apart afterwards. Ironforge had not gone to the trouble nor gotten his Soquili wounded just so that they could loose the mare to her depression and so the shaggy stallion had decided to do something about it and had gone in search of his son. Zhevra was still angry with him for not letting him come on the mission, and perhaps letting him help rehabilitate the mare would make up for it a little bit.
"Zhevra..can I speak with you for a moment?" He called out when he reached the stallion.
Zhevra looked up from where he had been helping one of the herd mares collect some fallen apples and with a quiet "Excuse me" trotted over to see what his father wanted. "Sir?" He rather hoped that it wasn't another of his father's attempts to make up for not taking him on the mission - since his return Ironforge had spent a great deal of time trying to make amends..but truth be told after seeing the injuries on the returning party? A small part of Zhevra was quite glad he had been left home. He wasn't ready for such an operation - and deep down he knew it, even if he didn't want to admit it to anyone other then himself. He'd have to work on changing that.
"I was hoping you might be able to take care of something for me..it shouldn't take to long, but I think it's important." Ironforge told his son as he came up, he rather hoped that the younger stallion would agree without to much fuss..but of course that was why he had gone ahead and made sure to mention that the chore should not be a long one.
"Well if it needs to be done..." Zhevra replied, a suspicious lilt in his voice as he took note of his fathers wording..and the way he had failed to mention just what exactly this chore was...
"It does." Ironforge stated, forcing himself to keep from narrowing his eyes or pointing out that he rarely asked Zhevra to do pointless things. He was trying to get along better with his son after all. "I want you to show the new mare..Supreme..around the herd lands, she's gotten a bit depressed since her rescue and I think being shown that we care about her might help."
"Hasn't that goat already done that?" Zhevra asked with a sigh - the last thing he really wanted to do was show a broken down mare the herdlands. Especially a depressed broken down old mare. That sounded about as exciting as patrols. However..hadn't he just told himself that he was going to try harder?
"I suppose I can do it though." He relented, with a glance back towards the fallen apples. Picking them up hadn't been fun..but eating the odd one when the mares were not looking had been.
"That's not the point.." Ironforge almost snapped at his son, managing to soften his voice at the last minute so that it didn't come out so much as a rebuke but as an explanation. "The point is to let her know she's welcome here." He went on before nodding decisively as his son relented, "Very well then..let me know how it goes afterwards." He stated before turning and heading back to check on Kale and Mercy before he gave in and lectured Zhevra about the proper attitude one should have about herd responsibilities.
Sighing slightly Zhevra watched as his father walked away, turning his head to glance at the mare he had been helping. "Sorry Ma'am seems I've been called to do something else." He apologized before trotting off to find the new mare. He didn't even hear the older mare mutter that he had been less help then hindrance anyways. Eating all the apples as he had been.
His father hadn't told him where to find the mare but he had seen her around the stream as of late so he decided that was as good a place as any to start his search.
Much as Zhevra suspected, Supreme was indeed loitering around the stream, she rather liked being close to water again - nice, clear, sweet tasting water. She hadn't realized how much she had missed this typical luxury until the mountain had taken it away from her.
The mountain - while she was there Supreme had spent most of her time simply focusing on what she had to do in order to survive through that day, now that she was free from such demanding thoughts her mind was free to wander over the horrors that she had seen and experienced while she was there. It was making it hard to sleep, nightmares and guilt plaguing her at almost every turn until she found herself turning more and more inward. Barely speaking to the other herd members and even her friend Lollipop until all of them had quietly wandered off deciding that she might just want to be alone.
And the truth of it was? Supreme hated being alone, she didn't want to talk to anyone because what did she have in common with them anymore? None of them understood..all of them were living good and happy lives here in the herd, the life she could have had if that wretched mare hadn't dragged her off all those many months ago...and yet..that didn't mean she wanted to be alone. But they had left and she wasn't going to chase them down so here she was..quietly listening to the stream.
Alone.
