Hoshor Plains Memories

The last time he had been here he still needed to huddle amongst his father's herd to keep warm. The last time he was here, everything had been so different so innocent. Now Tseax was grown, he was tall and all muscle and sleek coat with mane flowing wild and free despite the knots in it. The sun shone down making his reddish coat look like wildfire as he grazed, long neck stretched downward as he tore and chewed at the grass. 

The last time he had been in these lands, he'd had a mother and a father....now he was alone and without herd.

The Dreamspeaker continued to wander on her own, finding few signs of other horses aside from the one stud she'd met. But things hadn't seemed right; she'd seen no signs that he would be the one to gather a following and command a herd, at least, not just yet. She did not like the idea of wandering alone, but she still endured, following the feeling that rested in her soul. 

She found tracks belonging to another stud, and followed them. Her gaze lifted several times, as though in search of something, but nothing seemed to satisfy her. Eventually, she managed to catch up to him, and watched him from a distance, measuring him up. He was younger than she, and this caused her to flick one ear back. To say she wasn't terribly interested in a young, inexperienced stud would be an understatement. Still; Equus had brought him into her line of view, so she could only assume he had done so for a reason. Calmly, she lowered her head and began to graze, still keeping an eye on the stud in her peripheral vision.

The wind that was ruffling his mane also blew to him the scent of a mare. Naturally he lifted his head and looked around, ears flicking forward with interest. It wasn't until the golden coated mare was visible that his interest was really piqued. She seemed to be alone and wasn't pregnant, which meant that she hadn't left her herd to give birth. To Tseax this meant that she was claimable. He watched as she lowered her head to graze watching him all the while but apparently curious enough to stay nearby.  Snatching the opportunity he lifted his neck and extended it, taking a few steps forward with a slow proud gait making sure his muscles rippled. He blew outward through his nostrils, snorting once and giving an inviting whinny as he lifted a forehoof and struck the ground. It was a show, a display of the dominance he claimed while he maintained eye contact like he had seen his father do so many times before him. Thank the gods for the memories he still had inside his head. He could see that she was wary of him, but the fact that she was even curious enough about him to stay was enough to make him try.

She seemed to have caught his attention, and he drew closer to her but didn't merit much of a reaction from the mare. She knew she had little to nothing to fear from the stallion- as horses would not generally wound another for sport, and even in a fight between stallions, most of the moves were for show more than anything. As prey animals, none of them could afford an injury, so it seemed like an unwritten code that most competitions or confrontations came down to more of a display than an actual fight. 

He looked decent, she had to notice- but he was alone. What Atiris was looking for was more of a herd stallion- someone who had already proved themselves, rather than simply falling in with a stallion who had no mares of his own. Still, she could settle- and then allow herself to be stolen by a more capable stallion in the future. So when he gave a little display and stomped his foot, she finally lifted her fine head to regard him, still chewing away with a few strands of grass still hanging out one side of her mouth. What else did he have in his bag of tricks? So far, the mare was unimpressed.