What, Where, When, How?

[tingara]

Tingara plowed through the snow searching frantically. He galloped down into the valley from the rest of the High Country. Tingara had spent days searching through the mountains, hardly sleeping and not eating.
"Aleo! Where are you!?" Tingara called fearfully, he knew if Aleo wasn't here, he wouldn't be anywhere. Tingara had left both the missing King's and his mares in shelter here in the valley and he dreaded returning to them without the beloved Aleo.
Tingara felt a wave of sickness and dizziness come over him from the lack of food and rest but he pushed through it, he wouldn't give up, he couldn't.
From one end of the valley to another Tingara searched in every nook and cranny he could find, still nothing.
When Tingara returned to all the mares it was near sundown. He collapsed onto the dry ground out of exhaustion and lack of food under the rocky tor that was providing shelter. He positioned himself so the mares and foals couldn't see his face, he was crying.
Crying for the two mares he had lost, Kunama and Kaipo, and the great friend and King that had vanished without a trace.

[Illu]

Binda was just as scared and confused as anybody was. Aleo didn’t return from his search, and she had been pacing around frantically and getting severely stressed, NOT a good thing when your foal was due just about any day. While Tingara was gone, she was nearly out of her mind, running up and down endlessly until the weight in her stomach and exhaustion meant she could run no more.

Never had she been more pleased to see the shape of a stallion against the horizon. Running forwards eagerly, her pace slacked to a dead, horrified stop when she saw the defeated look in Tingara’s eyes. Aleo! Oh God! She didn’t know what happened, and she couldn’t bring herself to ask. The poor ragged looking roan just walked over with leaded feet, drawn by misery, and dropped down next to Aleo’s best friend.

[tingara]

"No..." was all Dilali could whisper at Tingara's forlorn and defeated expression. Her world plunged into a deep sea of swirling colours, a world of shock and pain. She went to leave and be alone with her grief but almost tripped over a small grey bundle at her feet. The bundle was the thing that brought Dilali to her senses, it was her and Aleo's nameless daughter, only a day old, sleeping at her feet.
"No I can't go anywhere," She shook her head and stepped carefully over the small filly and went to the other mares of her herd. The main one she wanted to see was Fira. Binda was comforting her brother and both Badu and Naima were gone.
"Fira how are you?" Dilali wouldn't take this mare's normal attitude, what was left of Aleo's herd had to band together.

[Tiggs]

"How do you think I am?" She snarled, pinning her ears back at the grey. Where had he gone?! He couldn't just leave her here with all these fools. If anyone was going to leave and cause trouble, it would be her! Grumbling, she nosed the trembling russet filly at her side. Aleo had to come back, he had his foals to look after. As if Tingara could do a good job. He was just laying on the floor!

Fira absently supported the foal as she nosed her way under her abdomen to drink. He'd be back. He always came back.


Crayola lumbered over to Tingara, snuffing at his chest as he lay on the ground. She was still in foal, and she waddled with the weight. She nickered softly to her stallion, comforting him. It seemed the grey King was missing. But who would take his place? The spotted mare nuzzled the black flank before her, and hoped he would get up soon.

[tingara]

Dilali snorted in agitation at Fira's behavior. She was just about to rip into Fira and her attitude but stopped herself, 'We all have to deal with grief our own way.'
Dilali nodded to Fira and left her to check on Binda, who was on the ground with Tingara. Dilali extended her muzzle to Binda and rubbed her reassuringly, things would work out.
After Binda Dilali walked to the edge of the shelter. It was just night and the sky was clearer that she'd ever seen it before.
"Birubi," she breathed to the stars. Finally she had found the name for her daughter.

---

Tingara had felt so weak when he'd finally arrived back but the warmth from Binda and Crayola had revived him enough so he had the energy to pull himself up. He shook himself, almost falling over again as he did so. Tingara turned to all the mares present, "The snow has stopped outside, I think it would be best if we got something to eat and then settled down for the night back under here." Tingara wobbled his way to the open plateau and started to graze for the first time in two days. Aleo may be gone but he was no use to these mares weak and starving.

[Illu]

Good advice for everyone else, but Aleo chose a very unfortunately time to go missing, the result in being Binda having to viciously fight the instinct to leave the herd. Now it was too late. The roans head jerked up in shocked surprise as a very unfamiliar sensation came to assault her abdomen. This foal wasn’t going to wait for her to get over whatever she was feeling, instead it was quite intent on coming a few hours earlier than she had predicted.

But here? No, not here. The approximate emotion running through her head was akin to terror, not just, because this was her first time and she wasn’t even out of the herd, but there was no proud sire to come back to. So unlike what she had imagined; her leaving and Aleo waiting anxiously for her to come back, a swift, beautiful birth to a stunning grey colt in the image of its father, and her young son high stepping after her as she led it back for his admiration.

Life is rarely like dreams.

Visibly distressed, Binda struggled with difficulty to get back on her feet, another painful contraction almost sending her back down again. Once she’d convinced her legs to hold her up she struggled towards the trees for cover, and out of sight, walking as long as possible until the foal decided where it would force her to stop. Never had she felt more vulnerable.

||OoC||Exit Binda for a while.||

[Valatone]

While everyone had been in the valley, it had been Valatone's time to set off to where she had been born, Paddy's Rush Bogong. There she had given birth to she and Tingara's new son, Cobalt, named for the strange colour of the snow that afternoon. He was a handsome black, just like his father, but only with a paint white streak through his mane and tail. A blizzard was blowing while this all happened, and he nearly lost his mother, but luckily she could see him.

While they were entering the valley a day later, Cobalt being much stronger after a good feed, a currawong cried out, "Cobalt, the ice, Cobalt!" as the noisy bird usually did to announce the arrival of a new foal. Valatone was very excited to show Tingara, but when she arrived, not everything was as cheerful as she was. She nickered to Tingara, and Cobalt excitedly danced around in the thick snow while his mother rushed to his father. She nuzzled him, "Tingara, are you ok?" she asked.

[tingara]

Tingara lifted his head from the grass and relief flooded through him. Valatone had come back, what was left of his herd was safe, for now. He nuzzled her affectionately back and began to investigate the fluffy black thing playing around Valatone's legs, he had a colt who was almost as black as he was say for an unusual white streak through his mane and tail.
"It seems the world is attempting to cave in around us," Tingara sighed in answer to Valatone's question, "Aleo is gone, I fear, for good. The High Country is without a king."
Binda leaving caught Tingara's attention but he soon realized why she was going. He whinnied out to her telling her to be safe. Tingara nuzzled both Valatone and his son, who whinnied happily at the attention, and began to check on all the mares. His body screamed that he needed sleep but he refused to give into it, not yet.
"My sweet Crayola, how are you this evening?" Tingara rubbed the heavily pregnant spotted mare lovingly. He soon noticed Fira and her filly standing alone.
"Fira, will you join us? The night will be cold and you and your beautiful filly will need the warmth of a group," he hoped against hope that she would see reason. After a little while of grazing, Tingara addressed the mares again,
"I think it is time to retire for the night, we will work thinks out properly in the morning."

[Valatone]

Valatone nickered back after being nuzzled by her beloved stallion. "I haven't heard of this yet, but I don't think he is gone," she said in a smooth way, trying to calm it down. What she said couldn't have made it better though. Deep down she thought, too, that the blizzard had called to him. Cobalt was jumping around and running between her legs, hungry to be fed again. She walked a little away from Tingara to stop and let the active foal of hers drink.

Cobalt, as he didn't yet know of kings, was over-excited about meeting his father. He was like a new Tingara, only smaller and with a strange, white streak from his mother. And even though the snow made him cold, he refused to snuggle next to his mother, who was lying under a tree. He enjoyed the cold snow. It was so fun to roll around in, and jump and play. Unfortunately for him, Cobalt still hadn't learnt that black stands out against white, and in the future that would bring trouble with other stallions.

Cobalt noticed the little filly with Fira. Still hyper, he bounced over and greeted her with a high-pitched whinny. The big ones wouldn't play, so what about her?

[Tiggs]

Crayola nibbled at Tingara's mane and huffed in contentment. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" She asked as if being not fine was something strange and unknown. She smiled absently and rested her head down on Tingara's withers.


Fira glared over at Tingara. He actually had a point for once, but she wasn't going to let him know she thought so. Herding her filly close, she took her over to the vacant spotted mare and settled the little chestnut down beside her. At least that blue Binda had left to birth whatever whelp she was going to disgrace Aleo's blood with.

Nuzzling her own - beautiful - foal, Fira folded her forelegs and carefully lowered herself down to lay on the ground. Ordinarily, she'd never be caught dead laying down but her foal did need the warmth. Aleo would be proud when he returned from wherever he had gone. Fira had decided he was probably still chasing those mares the dingo had been describing. He'd be back, he always came back.

Fira encouraged her filly foal closer and began to groom her, glowing with pride at the fiery red chestnut baby. She'd grow up to be just as striking as herself, and then when she came of age, she'd be the prize of the next King to take the throne.

Distracted by the cleaning of her foal and the strenuous task of ignoring Tingara's bantering nonsense about the King not returning, she didn't see the ugly little black colt approach until it reached out to her own foal. The little chestnut blinked in confusion at the playful black colt and looked to Fira for direction. Fira squealed and snapped at the horrid little thing. The filly turned back to the colt, flicked her ears back and performed a high pitched squeal. It was an entertaining mimic of Fira's angry response but Fira nuzzled her affectionately. "Good girl, my little Kimba."