Your Guardian [Tiggs/Open]

[E!]

Spring was upon the High Country, and it had done so suprisingly quickly - not that Ekala wasn't grateful. She had two mouths to feed, after all. Her own and her adopted daughter Eumina's. She had been with the filly for a few months now, and her enjoyment at having a young one at her side again had showed through the blossoming shine of her coat and the sparkle in her usually solem eyes.

And so it was with a light heart that the dark blue roan mare pranced down the slope toward Lake Cootapatamba, neat hooves steady as always. Now that he winter shag had dissapeared, Ekala looked healthier than ever - her sturdy frame looking rather more petite than it had used to, and yet still strong, as every brumby mother should be. Sliding a little on the bare slope, Ekala paused, head turning to watch the progress of her adopted daughter.

She was a pretty young thing, a lovely pale red dun overo, all dainty legs and fine features. She held a sweetness about her, but also a sense of sadness - as if something bad had happened to her, and she refused to speak of it. Of course, Ekala did not know what the poor fillies past was, and she never asked. The past was the past, in Ekala's opinion. Still, the lovely innocence of the lovely yearling had attracted many an interested stallion - all of them easily chased away by Ekala's angry bites and kicks.

It was not that Ekala didnt want her adopted daughter to find a mate - but the fact that she had no experience of the world, save for the one year she had lived, made Ekala hesitant to let her be taken so easily by a stranger. Turning back to face the mysterious lake, Ekala stepped forward delicately, her silky black mane draped over her neck prettily, a slight breeze fluttering her tail. A soft whicker left the mares lips as she called to Eumina, continuing down toward the shore of the lake eagerly.

[Tiggs]

The lesser-spotted red overo filly followed after Ekala with hesitant steps. Every hoof was placed carefully, and she was forever looking around with pale blue eyes. She might look on the outside to just be a wary young filly, but it betrayed the deepness with which her insecurities lay that she was always so worried. Her long spindly legs, three of which marked with high whites, were impossibly slim. Combined with her fine head – also dipped in white up to her eyes – and slender neck, she looked breakable.

Eumina was broken inside. She barely spoke a word, practically petrified of saying the wrong thing. One of the few words she had spoken to Ekala had been her name, and the occasional affirmative. Eumina never said no. She followed Ekala insistently, never straying more than a few metres in any direction yet somehow managing to stay out from under her minder’s feet.

The yearling moved after Ekala, her pink muzzle resting against the blue and white of Ekala’s flank. The ground down to the lake was a smooth incline, devoid of foliage. Just open grass with the occasional rock. Despite the knowledge that no brumby could sneak up on them here, Eumina continued her vigilance, standing quivering beside the blue roan mare even as they reached the lake’s bank.

[Rivre]

OOC; A good place to introduce my lovely Yileen? x3 He's in a foul mood xD


bic;;


He hated the spring, the month of growth and of life. Why was it named for the season of company, for all the stallions grew madder than mad during the thwarted time? He traveled slowly but surely across the open glade, increasingly handsome under the glowing sun's rays, his vital buckskin hide turned to a golden smutty blur, one that became hard to look at even in this queer light. Ribbed with muscle, he could have deemed at least a year older than his meager four, but it didn't particularly bother him, after all, who was here to see it?

Cootapatama was not the place for him, and yet thirst clutched at his throat with a dry itchiness, drawing him on and on, down and down towards the glistening pool. The winds picked distant black strands from sweating neck and Yillen snorted in surprise at the scents that traveled with them, a mare? Two mares? Raising his gaze from the earth, lobes swiveled to pitch forwards, almost but not quite quivering with interest.

A great blue roan mare and red overo filly, a curious pair, that traveled the opposite side of the dip, so far unaware of his glowing presence. Well, he had only just begun his descent. Rising in a rear of greeting, he threw throbbing wild call to the gales, whipping his reply back to his own ears and carrying only a hint of his foul mood. Mares were better company than colts or stallions, and so his mood was only a fraction more than sour, his deep black orbs surveying the hillside with dark intensity.

Stride increased in length and he set off at a powerful canter, one that carried him easily to the pool of water, bucking and cavorting at he went - the toss of black mane to the heavens and the way light fell to his sooty palomino coat, powerful neck arched with pride and vital strength. Ears remained trained on the pair, but eyes fell to the liquid as did his muzzle, hard black hooves indenting the soft earth which surround the laps in land, cool and wantsome water seeping quickly over parched lips and soaking his throat with velvet ice.

After he had drunk his full, he threw up his head once more, calling yet another great call, "It is I, Yileen!"

[E!]

As Ekala reached the lake and her dark nose moved closer to the still waters surface, a sound was heard. Immediately, the mares head whipped up and she called for Eumina protectively, turning to eye the top of the opposite slope cautiously. She knew that Eumina would be close behind her - she seemed to move with Ekala, standing always in the right place, and always perfectly protected by the mares frame.

The blue roans wise eyes caught sight of the newcomer soon after he had started downward, expression unchanging even as he reared and cried out. He was strong, powerful looking as he cavorted down the slope, showing off to herself and her adopted daughter. Ekala still remained silent as her eyes flicked over the stallion, judging and analysing whether he would make a good partner for her and a good protector for Eumina. For that is what the two needed most - someone to protect them.

He was right across the lake now, his head dropping attractively to drink. Ekala did the same, her lips relishing the silk of the cool water, her throat in pleasure as water soothed it. Her eyes did not leave the buckskin though, even as she drank. A gentle whicker left her lips as she raised her head, then beckonded to Eumina to drink.

At the stallions outburst, Ekala replied quietly, just in the stallions hearing range "And it is I, Ekala". Ekala's soft nose touched Eumina's shoulder to comfort her, but her eyes remained, as always, on the buckskin stallion.

[Tiggs]

And suddenly there he was, cresting the ridge, rearing and kicking out those deadly hooves. Eumina froze next to her minder, heart racing and lungs heaving. It became harder to breathe as he came closer, and her crystal-blue eyes were riveted to him. His bay-coloured pelt was dark with sweat or smudges of dark hair, and his mane caught like old man’s beard in the air as he tossed his head.

Another filly might have been impressed by his vitality, but not Eumina. She was frightened beyond reasoning. He was impending doom! He would hurt her, she knew it. But her legs would not take her away. Closer he came down the opposite basin, taking a drink from the laje before screaming his name to them. She flinched, and Ekala answered him. No! No! Don’t speak to him! He will come closer!

Her voice was trapped inside her head, and Ekala couldn’t hear it! She would invite him closer! He would come closer and she would never escape! It was almost a betrayal. The blue roan mare had saved Eumina from the grey colt, but she would let this much bigger beast hurt her? She felt the nose of her minder on her shoulder and suddenly the dark spell was broken. She could move!

The painted filly took off at a dead run, racing back up the incline. Her stride ate up the ground, and she had a fair head start. There was no cover here for Eumina to hide in, but she knew there was some not more than half a mile away. If she could keep ahead of the stallion, she could find a place to hide! She would be safe!

[Rivre]

View shifted, as he arched his neck further, nostrils flaring as foreleg shot out to paw to earth with impressive vigor. How could the pair resist such charm and looks? Black smutty threads fluttered in the breeze, lifted from damp forehead, forelock whipped up in a frenzy of mane as Yileen let out yet another trumpeting call in answer to the beautifully sweet mare's - however this one was more noble, a more contained excitement to it, sort of hushed.
It didn't take long for his antics to scare the filly who stood cowering where she had stopped a little way from him, and she turned on her haunches to bolt; a soft call followed her, a little hurt but mostly annoyed that she could not see his plain interest. A small snort soon dispelled his ruffled mane, gaze falling to the stocky blue roan mare once again.

For a moment, he stopped - forefoot raised, and all of the arrogance fell from his features to watch the queer way light fell and reflected off her oddly coloured coat, the soft planes of her face and quiet intelligence of her eyes; it was mostly the fierceness he detected that attracted him to her, and he blinked, lost momentarily, before posing again, impatient to greet her now. Hooves carried him at a joyous trot around the gathered pool of liquid, the drops he had swallowed already doing their good in his now quenched throat; mane rippling, mirroring muscle as he drew to a halt close to her flecked hide, nose quivering as he extended it, nostrils dilated and tail held high as was curvature.
"Ekala is a beautiful name, almost as pretty as the one to whom it belongs."