First Born [o]

[E!]

The weather was stereotypical of spring, having been stormy but an hour before, and now warm and sunny. The earth was wet and fragrant, outside the safety of a sheltered pocket where a delicate mare gently licked clean her first-born foal. Exhaustion was obvious in the line of the slender mares body, but defiance glittered in her pale, nervous eyes. The small bundle at her feet was a pitiful thing indeed, smaller than a foal should have been, considering the short winter and plentiful feed, but she appeared healthy, despite her size.

This fact made her dam, Alkira, very pleased indeed. And with a quiet sound, she nudged her filly foal gently to her feet. With a silly sounding squeak, the delicate filly wobbled to her tiny hooves. She started at the sound of her mothers proud neigh, staring upward at the pale grey mare with a sparkle in her newly opened deep brown eyes. In return, her dam stared down at her with pride.

Alkira's filly was an odd colour, taking after her sire, whose coat Alkira found much to her attraction. A grulla overo coat that caught the eye of any - brumby or man. Alkira noted, with an odd sensation in her stomach, that her filly was much lighter than her sire, the thought that this might have been due to Alkira's own pale colouring made the mare giddy. This was, after all, her first foal.

Her filly stared upward silently, and then after a moment gave a funny sounding neigh. A kookaburra laughed nearby, and the small filly neighed back at it, her own neigh sounding similar to the birds call. Alkira shushed her daughter with a quiet whicker, nosing the fillies tiny ears. "You shall be called Kinta, for laughter and joy - for you bring much into my life, beautiful Kinta"