Sleepy Fox Hollow felsic

these days, selenia felt the foal's movements with more regularity.

it gave her a sense of hope; in a moment of exhilaration, she tossed out her mane with a bright whinny, welcoming the sunset which glowed just over the hollow's edge.

their herd would stand, she felt, smiling gently to herself as she glanced around @Fancy and silverbirch.

he flies to the east
following the river’s path
as it spills inland. 

horse dung on the wind.
he knows in their great passing
they stir little lives

a flight of feathers
and he lands heavy footed
near one giant beast

a thrust! and a stab!
a mouse in the reeds speared through
then thrown and consumed.

Snorkeling was a skill Fancy had once learned from a mare who had travelled North from what she called the “hot lands.” A place where the earth was sandy, and where green riches grew beneath the river’s surface- high in nutrients compared to the dry desert grasses. It involved exhaling while snatching mouthfuls of grass from beneath the water’s surface, and while it did bother her nostrils to do so, the grass was just what she needed to beat her growing appetite.

Her sides had just faintly begun to swell, as had Selenia’s. No wonder she was more hungry than usual. It made her pleased to know she had conceived- though she did find herself growing irritable with the passing months.

She lifted her head from the water, breathing out with a harsh exhale as she munched on the river grasses she had pulled free from the riverbed. 

The heron that landed near her had not been noticed while she’d been groping about under the water’s surface, and she spooked to see it now, in her clearing vision. She cow-kicked lazily, ears pinned, more peeved that her surprise had cost her a few strands of river grass as she hissed Git! at it.

a heron.

fancy did something selenia would have to practice. she herself had sidestepped the large bird. they needed to eat. but a horse and a mouse were both made of meat. she felt a kinship with the tiny creatures.

ears pinned, the bucksin whickered in approval as fancy made to shoo the feathered dinosaur remnant away from the, idly flicking her tail against rounded flanks.

not nice, fat meat-bag
he scurries from her long kick
on thin and fast legs

he clicks his beak twice
head bobbing and wings unfurled 
just out of their reach

overhead the flies
drone on as small lives slither 
now out of his reach. 

more scolding toned clicks
as he carrionbird flaps
across the river.

Her tail snapped like a whip at her wet flanks as the bird flewoff. With a snort, water droplets were sent in a spray from her nostrils, and a shake of her mane shook free a strand of river grass that was carried some feet downriver before it sank to the bottom again. 

She glanced to Selenia and Silverbirch. The bird was no threat to them, of course, and less of a nuisance than flies- but still, she found it repulsive.

You know their neck, legs and beak weren’t originally that long. She stated. Do you know the story of how herons were created? She asked. Knowledge of the tales of Equus and the Army of 105 was something she shared with her herdmates, as they hadn’t seemed familiar with the tales from their past herds. Nevertheless- there was a chance she had told the story before.

the bird scolded them. selenia whickered at his odd legs and the weird elegance of his wingspan before she glanced back to fancy with a smile.

"no. tell me," she invited, thinking for a moment that her friend was indeed glowing. it was a shame maplesmoke had gone again, and more that winter would arrive and it would be them again.

she glanced at the hollow, waiting for fancy to begin and wondering if this was a good place to weather the coming storms.

this bank is his side;
he stalks the river with clicks
wings held in sharp points

it speaks of herons!
he does not come much closer
but his thin head turns.

‘go on’, his hiss says;
posture stilled and wings brought in
as he rests on one limb.