Friends or Foes | Sinclair and Little Bird

Bird looked up at the overcast sky with a sigh. She hated dreary days like this. It didn't help that her legs felt sore enough to fall off then and there. Birds chirped overhead as they fluttered through patches of tall grass. The roan mare hummed absentmindedly to their soft tune. The heat of someone's gaze on her pelt made her whirl around. The loner mare was eye to eye with a red mare. Her black mane swirled around her as her bright green eyes seemed to focus on her, silently telling her something. Bird glanced around, expecting there to be some sort of danger, but there didn't appear to be anyone around except the two of them.

 She offered the other mare a soft smile before she spoke. "Hi. Is everything okay?" She asked. Her brown eyes filled with concern. Was this one of the mares that 'belonged' to the Bachelor herd? Surely if she were she wouldn't want anyone else to be captured by those brutes. Bird still found herself being wary. 'No one is to be trusted.' Her recently deceased father's words echoed in her head. Her mane flowed around her in the steady breeze, and her forelock fell onto her face, covering half of it.

Bird's ears flattened slightly as the other mare reared with a shrill whinny. At the steady sound of hooves thumping on the ground toward them, her muscles tightened as she turned and ran. Her heart hammered in her chest. Why had she done that? Her legs carried her over the plains and toward the Great Pine. It seemed so far away though. Her legs were exhausted, and she felt that she wasn't running as quickly as she normally would have been. The roan mare felt the hot breathe of the Bachelor stallion on her back legs as he bit them, trying to slow her down. Bird whinnied, kicking out with her back legs. Her hard hooves collided with the stallion's jaws, but it only seemed to make him angrier. The stallion grunted with effort as he caught up with her, slamming her with his broad body. Bird's breathe came in short pants as the stallion knocked the breathe out of her. He bit at her legs until she eventually tired out, falling to the ground.

He stood over her triumphantly. "Hello, little mare. You'll be a fine addition to the Bachelor herd," he chortled down to her. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked up at the x-scarred face of the horse above her. "No. I won't be," she said loud enough for the red mare to hear her. Bird kicked out, hitting him where his leg snapped to one side with a brutal crunch of bone. The Bachelor stallion yelled out in pain as he fell to the ground. Bird looked up the hill toward the other mare before she stood on shaky legs. Tears made streams down her face as she made her way back up the hill toward the other mare. "Come on! You can leave with me. He's down and out. He can't chase us," she said, glancing back over at the injured horse.

Bird gave the mare a reassuring nod. "It's okay. This is your chance," she said as the other mare took a hesitant step toward her. "I'll protect you. That's what we Rangers do after all. My name is Little Bird by the way." The tears stopped streaming down her face as she heard the stallion behind her grunting with effort to stand only to fail over and over again. She snorted quietly at him, glaring at him to stay down or things would only get worse. It had surprised Bird that she had had the strength and mental security to even do something like that. Maybe with her father's death she was a bit more secure about actually fighting. There had been a time where she would have just laid there. That mare was certainly gone.

Bird began walking. Her brown gaze stared down at the wounded Bachelor as he struggled and failed to stand. She turned her attention back to the mare at her side as she spoke. The wind caught at her voice almost making it where Bird couldn't hear her. "It's okay. I understand. You might have gotten in trouble if you hadn't," she said with a nod. The steady breeze slung her long mane across her neck and down her back. Her tail swished in the wind as she walked. "Thank you. What's yours?" She asked, tilting her head a bit in curiosity.

At the pretty, red mare's worried tone, Bird turned her head as they walked to watch her. There was so much pain and turmoil there that it hurt herself to even see. "There will be, but the herds are resilient. They'll find a way to survive. They always have." Her voice sounded sure even though she didn't personally know too much about herd life. She was a loner after all, but her father had taught her the ways of each herd: the lore of the Olde, the tactics of the Bachelors, and the persistence of the Exiles. They all had their perks, but there was one thing they had in common: the will to survive. Her ears perked forward at the mare's question. She shook her head slightly almost as if she still didn't believe that had happened. "I suppose I knew deep down what I had to do, and I just let my body react," she explained. Bird sat down beside the kneeling mare. "My father made me train day in and day out since I was born to be a Ranger, a protector of the herds and loners. I never thought I would be able to do it until.... he wasn't there anymore to protect me. I knew I had to learn to use the tools he had given me," she said, looking off toward the Great Pine which stood in the distance. "I guess I'm just doing what he would have wanted me to do."