Downpour

Three Nordanner mares stood grazing in their respective field, peaceful and content. After two weeks of sorting out the rankings within their small group, fairly smoothly given it was three mares and none of them were quite acquainted, they’d become decent enough friends. They’d still had their minor ‘no, that’s my space’ issues but now things were calm. NightWish, senior-most resident of the field and first nordanner of Sound of Madness Stables, had maintained her status as the mild tempered queen of the nordanner pasture while the second purchased mare of the stables, Brown Eyed Cowgirl, danced around maintain only title ‘queen of sass’. She was quite the sweet southern belle but she also wanted to be the best and have her say in everything. And then there was the middle arrival, whom occupied the field as a lease to SoMS,  Endeverafter; she was just content to sit back and watch Cowgirl try to one-up Wish.

“Well I happen to think that Raziel is an absolute doll! I mean have you seen him?! He’s gorgeous.” Cowgirl said in her flirty southern trill, “If he were a nordanner, I’d be all over that boy.” Wish shook her head slightly, though smiling at her friend, and Endy laughed lightly.

“So we’re going to talk about gorgeous stallions but we’re not going to talk about Amontillado? Have you seen him to dressage? He’s incredible- I hope I’m that good some day!” Wish said, slightly British and wistful. Cowgirl snorted as if Wish were joking, “Oh please darling, you’ve already beaten him in competition! You’d be way too good for that hano-thoroughbred. Jace should be looking at you more than Amontillado. You’ve got the grace no one other than that pretty little white arab mare could match around here! Though Endy probably comes pretty close! And of course yours truly, though that goes without saying.”

The white peafowl mare blushed slightly but didn’t refuse the compliment. A breeze stirred the air and she looked up instead, coyly trying to avoid any thought Cowgirl might have of asking her input. However, when she looked, she noticed the sky had turned grey and a darker force was swirling towards them with a solid white mist engulfing the land below. She scented the air, drawing the attention of the other two.

“What is it Endy?” Wish asked, concerned about the mares behavior until she inspected the shadow moving fast towards them, “It looks like…”

“Rain,” Endy said responded with a nod.

“Rain?! Ugh. I can’t be the beauty of the barn yard if I look like a drenched dog,” Cowgirl sulked a little but the mares looked at each other with a grin.

Thunder rumbled in the distance and Endy nipped playfully at Cowgirl, “Come on, if we’re going to get soaked we might as well have a little fun!” Wish tossed her head in approval, “I’m up for it!”

“Why to ya’ll hate me?” Cowgirl groaned, half melodramatic the other half kiddingly. “Come on princess, it’ll be fun and you’re always going to be beautiful,” Wish teased, “If you were as fast as you are dramatic and flirty you might get some attention.”

Cowgirl looked partially offended, “Why I never! I’ll have you know I could take you on any day! You’re dreaming if you think you can beat me.”

Endy took her turn to jump in, “Then keep up if you can!”

The peafowl mare half reared and took off towards the back of the field with a flick of her ears, Wish close behind her. It wasn’t until a flash of lightning startled Cowgirl that they saw her catch up quickly. Wish kicked her heels, eliciting a squeal from Cowgirl and Endy jumped forward in delight as they all stretched out their strides. The torrential downpour fell hard in large pelting drops, making the coats of the nordanners damper by the moment. The three mares fell almost even but Endy still stayed a half stride ahead of the black dressage mare and the bay western horse. They lapped the field with ease, making a game of seeing how far they could go between the flashes of lightning.

“You’re not going to beat me!” Cowgirl laughed, trotting a high prance as the other two slowed to catch their breath. Endy shot Wish a sly look before darting ahead of Cowgirl towards a fresh puddle. It might’ve been clear and harmless if not for their laps around the field but it had been churned up in the process and as Cowgirl sped to catch up to Endeverafter, the white mare stopped and brought her forelegs down hard into the mud. The thick brown water splashed all over the two mares and Cowgirl tucked her hind legs, as a well-trained reining horse should, and stared in disbelief and Endy for a moment with her mouth agape.

“I think she’s going to have a stroke,” Wish said, her light, flitting laugh erupting with it.  The two mares laughed but Cowgirl took that opportunity to splash Wish and trotted forward, shooting them a cheeky grin. A call came from the gate as two humans split in different directions, one going towards the field to the right of theirs that held a notoriously grumpy new mare named Divination. The dark haired man at the gate called loudly, “Wish!”

The black mare perked her ears at the man, Jace. “Bring ‘em in Wish, come on!”

“Come on,” Wish said, nudging Endy, perpetually in a mom-like state in this field.

They both raced past Cowgirl and arrived at the gate quickly where they were petted good-naturedly and Jace slipped a halter on Endeverafter and Cowgirl. Proving to be the good, reliable mare she was, Wish simply walked along with her two friends as Jace led them quickly towards the stables.

As they walked down the hall Endy noticed the girl that usually dealt with the nordanners lying on a bench outside the tack room unconscious. “Wish, what’s wrong with Avery?” she wondered aloud. Wish fell in next to Endy in their procession. “It’s probably nothing to worry about,” she said reluctantly, though any time Avery was hurt she had her suspicions it had to do with the stallion called Graveyard Dancing, after all he always boasted about how he didn’t need anyone or need to listen to them either.

“She’s probably just had a spill off of Grim again.”

Endy contemplated this as she was led into her temporary home. Over the short time she’d been here, she’d grown a respect for the people around her. She’d never had problems with humans and certainly wouldn’t say she didn’t need them. Some horses around here were strange. Some that didn’t care for humans, some that deliberately got a thrill from disobeying them and some that were outright cruel. It puzzled her. But at least there were horses like most of the ones she’d met, compliant or ones like Wish and Cowgirl who just genuinely loved to be around people to receive praise and please them by doing a good job. In that, she was happy enough.

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I wrote this to be going on along the same time as this story line from a while ago:
fav.me/d638ifc

I got an idea for a short story line while doing this so I though 'hey why not?' haha the background's what made it happen really.

Art (c) Me
Ref: Google; will find link later
Character (c) SWC-arpg