January Challenge: New Beginnings

Monthly Challenge Winner.

Why wasn’t Aldebaran moving? Haldus wondered. The two Nordanners were on their way back from a neighboring farm, carrysacks tied loosely about their necks, when the older stallion simply stopped.

“Baron?”

Aldebaran’s ear flicked back. “Quiet,” he whispered, ear rotating forward to catch sound that was somehow escaping Hal’s notice.

Hal huffed, but he started scanning the brush. Who knew if a mountain lion or a fenwolf were lurking about? Without realizing it, the colt found himself shoulder-to-flank with the bay paint stallion, as if he were a foal again. One of Aldebaran’s vines uncoiled from his right hind leg and patted Hal reassuringly before curling up the stallion’s limb.

Hal snorted, stepped away and shook his head so that his upright mane flopped from side to side. He was two years old! Why was this making him so uneasy?

“Come,” Aldebaran urged, breaking into a trot. He was darting through the brush before Hal could get his hooves into the pine-strewn ground.

“Baron! Wait!”

The bay roan stallion jumped one bush and skirted a fallen log, all while striving to keep Aldebaran’s short white tail in view. The fact that the stallion was a former show jumper did not help matters. He popped over each obstacle as if they were poles on the ground. He also didn’t have a full rack of antlers, like Hal. Damned Ram potion.

Branches slapped Hal in the face as he threw himself through a hole Aldebaran had made with his body. Twigs snagged at his coat and carrysack, leaves and vines wound themselves around the tines of his antlers.

Great—just great, Hal snarled, gritting his teeth. Small trees were uprooted as they gave way to the colt’s determination. He shouldered his way through the last of the brush and found himself in the middle of a small clearing.

The scent of fenwolf was overpowering.

“Baron!” he trumpeted. “We’ve got to get out of—”

Aldebaran turned his head slowly and took a step back. Two fenwolf puppies—one purple, one blue—rolled into view, tussling at the paint stallion’s hooves.

“Look,” Aldebaran whispered.

Hal moved further into the clearing. The dark, yawning mouth of a forest cave could not fully hide the limp form that sprawled there.

Oh.

“What are we going to do?” Hal asked. The pups could only be a month or two old. With their mother gone, they wouldn’t survive another night. This close, he could smell death on the pups—they had blood on their muzzles and paws, probably from repeated attempts to nurse. “Are we going to take them home?”

Aldebaran playfully nudged the blue pup with one of his vines. Flowers bloomed along the stallion’s legs, bright and bold, only to drop to the ground. Soon, the puppies were playing in a veritable carpet of flowers.

“What do you think we should do?”

Hal stepped closer, the smell of death curling in his nostrils. He crushed a few flowers to release their pleasant perfume. “It would be cruel to leave them here. We could take them home.” One of the puppies rolled through the flowers to bump up against Hal’s front hooves. Cute, he mused, leaning over to take a sniff. The fenwolf yipped and flopped over, showing its belly.

Aldebaran smiled. “I think so, too.” Strands of vines unwound from the stallion’s legs and began to untie the carrysack around his neck. “Stand still.”

Within minutes, Aldebaran had put the two puppies in the carrysacks and hung them from Hal’s branching antlers. Their weight wasn’t that significant, but the colt had never had anything heavier than ribbons or flowers up there. He took one experimental step, then another, trying to learn how to balance all over again. It didn’t help that the puppies were squirmy things, wriggling in their carrysacks and yipping in his ears.

“Ready?” Hal called back. The puppies swayed and he stopped, bracing himself until they settled.

“Go on. I’ll be there in a moment.”

The scent of flowers grew stronger, covering the odor of dead she-wolf. Hal’s nostrils twitched and he walked forward, carrying his precious cargo home. To a better life.

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Yes, I did intend it to be sad. Well, as sad as I can make it without turning the above story into a novella. And believe me, if I had the time, I would.

I wanted to challenge myself with a complex background and when all was said and done, I was pleased with the results. (After cursing at the cave and applying the eraser. Then more cursing and more eraser ...)

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Horses: 3884 ECr Aldebaran & 6761 ECr Haldus.
Art, story (c) me
References ...
Horses: dotstock.deviantart.com/art/Ka… & burningnightmare.deviantart.co…
Antlers: eltear-stock.deviantart.com/ar…
Background: foxstox.deviantart.com/art/Hob…