My Valentine (Swede)

[Saz]

The bay mare was in a foul mood, whether it was the addition of the pregnancy hormones on top of her legs and back aching, or whether she was truly getting a little claustrophobic with Slade's constant fretting, she was grumpy. Her ears were flattened into her mane as she shot the dark bay stallion a glare and snapped at him as he jostled her once more. "Slade, Would you just bugger off a few steps?" She growled, her eyes narrowing as she took a few lumbering strides away from the stallion to get the message across. He hadn't left her alone since he had smuggled her out of Ichirou's terra, and he certainly hadn't let her out of his sight in War's territory. And as soon as he'd realized his family was there he'd ushered her to leave. Much to both her and Fala's annoyance.

Twitching her tail to attempt to communicate to the young stallion that she was peeved with him, Valentine began to feel sudden sharp pains in her sides. Nipping at her side intermittently between mouthfuls of grass, eventually the young mare realized it must be time. Turning away from Slade, she began to make her way into the trees and then at the sound of his hoofsteps as he began to follow her she span around and flattened her ears at him. "Stay here, Slade. I'll be back later." She glared at him, gritting her teeth as another wave of pain rose through her before she stumbled around and disappeared into the trees.

Once she was out of earshot of the young stallion, the mare sighed in relief before settling down just behind a small cluster of bushes to give birth. It took her a little while, but thankfully there weren't any complications. And finally with one last heave the foal slid to the ground and Valentine allowed herself to lying limp for a few minutes. A nudge to one of her hind legs caught her attention and she lifted her head and began inspecting her foal.

Long, thin black and then bay legs, all dark except for the left hind which was marked with an even white sock. A little fluffy bottle-brush tail, and a fluffy black mohawk for a mane. And then her gaze got to the face, intelligent dark brown eyes gazed back at her, a little startled from the suddenness of birth but wide and beautiful nonetheless. And there between those intelligent, sparkling eyes was an almost perfect imitation of a diamond. A bright white star. "Beautiful." Valentine breathed, staring at the perfection that was her daughter.

The filly lifted her head a little as her dam got to her hooves, eyes wide with surprise, so you could become taller? But... how did she do that? With a little squeak of effort, the filly began attempting to sort out her stick-thin legs and attempted to become as tall as her dam. With a bit of effort and help from her mother, she finally managed to get her legs in order and somewhat support herself on her wobbly legs. Staring down in surprise at herself, the bay filly lifted one foot as though to move forward, but lost her balance and fell face first into the dirt. She gave a grumpy huff and stood once more, again attempting to move forward and this time she did. And with wobbly baby steps she slowly stumbled toward Valentine.

Smiling warmly, the bay mare gently nuzzled her daughter's rump as she reached her side and after a bit of searching began feeding. "Hmm, you need a name... I've been thinking a bit, and I'm not quite sure... but I think perhaps Venus will do." She talked aloud to her daughter and when the filly's tail flicked to and fro at the sound of her name Valentine decided she like it. "Good. Venus you are then." She snorted, gently nuzzling the filly once more before glancing back the way she came. She supposed she needed to get back to Slade before he came looking for her, or had a small aneurysm. Whichever came first.

"C'mon, Venus. We'd best be getting back to your father before he has a fit." She snorted gently, nudging the filly who was beginning to inspect the ground for a decent place for a nap. "You can have a nap once we get back, I know that I need one too." The mare yawned, giving birth really took it out of you. Shaking her head once, she began wandering back to where she had left Slade beside the lake, Venus snuggled into her side, occasionally tripping on a stray root or twig that was in their path.

Eventually they made it back to the lake and sure enough the dark bay stallion had been fretting. Rolling her eyes before she came in to view, Valentine smirked, Slade might not show it, but she knew he worried about her. Stepping out into the open, Venus gave an awed squeak and took a few steps away from her before seeing Slade and instinctively backpedalling. The bay mare chuckled softly, lowering her muzzle and giving the filly a reassuring nudge before glancing toward Slade and nickering to him. "Slade, come meet our daughter, Venus. Venus, darling, this is your father, Slade." She nickered, introducing the stallion to his daughter with a gentle smile.

[Swede]

Valentine was his at last, and his life might as well have been complete. The initial plan had been to return to War's herd, but once there he had first discovered his mother and siblings had moved in, incredibly irritating seeing as he had left them ages ago and felt no remorse about it. His mother was an idiot even by his standards, chattered endlessly and never left him alone; his sister acted like she was all clever, and though he refused to attribute it to the actual reasons, her mind could run circles around his and he hated feeling like the dumb one in a conversation; and Dane, well, he was both stupid and spineless. Moreover, as soon as Valentine was with him, Slade immediately began to distrust War, and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

Val had complained a bit, but that was alright. She'd see that they were better off on their own, away from his dumb family and that treacherous stallion. Today though, she was even grumpier than usual; out here in the wild, he did his best to protect her, and make sure no harm could come to her, from either predator or rival stallion. She didn't seem to appreciate the effort much though. Well, no doubt traveling had tired her out, and made her a bit extra grumpy; she'd see.

He was a bit taken aback when she pushed him away entirely, and was tempted to follow her anyway. But common sense even he possessed made him realize it was probably best to leave her alone. Mirror Lake was safe, anyway; stallions didn't fight here, or even look at another's mares. It was a universal law, and no one questioned it. By coming here, Slade was making an inherent promise to behave, too, as was any other stallion in the vicinity; here, Valentine would be safe.

He still worried, though.

Probably not a lot of time passed, but it felt like it... and when she finally returned, he had almost been on the verge of setting off to find her. "Valentine! There you-" he paused upon spotting the miniature shadow beside her. This... this almost made the wait worth it. He stepped forward slowly, lowering his muzzle to sniff at the tiny filly. "Hello Venus..." She reminded him of Valentine, and would no doubt be just as pretty when she grew up. "She's cute."

[Saz]

The newborn filly froze as the larger stallion lowered his muzzle and sniffed her, she blinked up at him and tilted her head slightly. Her ears perked up as he spoke her name, and after a brief glance at her mother, who was resting her muzzle on Slade's shoulder, Venus decided she would snuggle up against him. Ducking her head slightly, the filly shuffled under Slade's muzzle and snuggled into his broad chest. She inhaled his strong scent and committed it to memory, what had mother addressed him as? Father? Yes, that had been it. Her father. Smiling in bliss at the warmth and security her parents provided, the little filly leaned into her sire's chest and began to doze. Soon after she had begun dozing on her feet, one of her forelegs buckled out of exhaustion and the filly jerked awake. She shook her head and then allowed herself to keel into the grass at her sire's hooves and snooze in the spring sunshine.

--

Valentine smiled gently, now far happier than she had been mere hours ago, she watched as Slade greeted their daughter and reached forward, gently ghosting her muzzle down his neck before allowing it to rest upon his shoulder. Her ears flicked forward, catching his words as he spoke and a small smile rippled across her face. "Indeed she is, she'll be beautiful when she's older, the perfect mixture of you and I." She nickered back, blinking tiredly before yawning. "Slade, dear, have you thought about finding another mare so we could possibly claim a territory somewhere so we could raise Venus with some stability?" She asked, warm eyes regarding the shorter, more solid stallion before glancing down at their daughter as she crumpled into the grass. "Well it seems she's going to be a daddy's girl." She chuckled softly, careful not to wake the sleeping newborn.

[Swede]

He had been a foal once, but he didn’t remember it quite like this. So tiny, so soft… so fragile. Even her little stumble on weary newborn legs startled him, as though she’d explode into a million pieces if she fell. But she did not, and merely bedded down to rest in the grass, where she looked even more vulnerable. “Hm. My little girl,” he murmured with some satisfaction, pride inflating his chest. He would protect her with all his stubborn ability, a brick wall of furious fatherhood to shield her from all the harmful things in the world.

Reluctantly pulling his attention away from Venus, Slade looked at Valentine as she spoke, considering her proposal silently. She had a point there; and, though Valentine had been his main objective and he was generally satisfied with life now that she was with him, it certainly couldn’t hurt to have another mare or two. And a territory all his own, somewhere safe and secluded where they would never be bothered by anyone who would want to take that which rightfully belonged with Slade… that sounded nice. “That’s a good idea,” he said after a moment’s thought, and then he grinned, nipping at her mane affectionately. She really was the most perfect mare in the world, beautiful and clever and keen to look out for their best interests. Things were certainly looking up for Slade; he’d managed to get rid of his annoying old family and shape a new one, gotten out from under another stallion’s shadow…. Slade was the boss of his own world, standing on his own four feet. Soon, he’d have his own land and herd to protect, and everything would be absolutely perfect. “Hmm,” he muttered, looking down at Venus again, “I don’t know if it would be safe to bring you two with me out in the other commongrounds… but I don’t want to leave you here alone either.” It was said that this place was safe, but could he really trust such hearsay? What if the one time something bad happened here was when he wasn’t around. Out there with him, he could at least keep an eye on them; but out there was where all the dangers were, other stallions and predators and whatever other things wandered the world. Slade was pretty strong, but if he got outnumbered it might be hard to fight off an enemy. Augh, such dilemmas hurt his brain… once all this settling down business was arranged, life would be much simpler and he would be the happier for it.

[Saz]

Valentine could all but see the cogs whirring within Slade's head after she suggested finding another mare and then going on to claim a territory, and then as he spoke she could barely withhold her grin. "Slade, darling, no one's going to bother a mare with a newly born foal. And if they do, they're an absolute idiot. The reason we came here was because it was safe, but if you're not happy with us staying here then we could come with you, but I fear we would slow you down and make us all more vulnerable instead. How about you leave us until sunset and then come back and spend the night with us, that way if you've found a mare then we can all get to know each other and then tomorrow morning we go and claim somewhere, and if not then you can spend tomorrow searching and we will go from there?" She very carefully stepped closer to the dark bay stallion and gently nuzzled his neck. "You know I can protect us both for a few hours at the very least. And I'm not exactly going to run off with another stallion and leave you searching for me... You saved me, Slade. I owe you everything." She nickered, slyly stroking his ego as she spoke. "If you can't find another mare out in the commongrounds you could always steal one from another stallion, I know you're strong and brave enough to do that." She murmered, nibbling the longest strands of his mane before drawing away and looking at him with a sultry gaze. "Maybe once we've got a herd, we could go about having another foal." Valentine purred, holding his gaze for a few moments before lowering her head and nuzzling Venus' sleeping form gently.

[Swede]

Slade nodded, slowly, thoughtfully. "More good ideas. You really are full of them," he commented. But of course, he had known that; he'd always known that Valentine was the embodiment of perfection. He did not expect anything less. "Well then... if you're sure you two will be alright, I guess I'll head out. See what I can find. And obviously if it's someone you don't like, then they don't have to stay, either. I want you to be happy. So hopefully I'll find someone good, and if they aren't, I'll just keep looking until it works. They'd have to be nice to Venus too, and nobody who'd be a bad influence..." He drifted into his inner musings for a moment, the importance of doing this task correctly revealing itself to him more clearly the more he thought about it.

"Well, I'm off. I won't be gone long, I promise. I'll meet you back here in the evening, so don't wander off too far." Slade paused, looking down at Venus. She really was as perfect as her mother. Then he turned and lumbered off in his heavy-footed trot, forcing himself to trust that they would be fine without him for a while. He had better hurry and find a new mare or two though, since he didn't want to be away for long.

[Saz]

The rangy bay mare smiled gently, flicking her tail as she listened to Slade bumble on with his praising words before nodding slightly and raising an eyebrow in mild amusement as the young stallion drifted into his thoughts. "It's quite alright, Slade. We won't get in any trouble, I imagine. And I doubt we shall wander, I'm rather tired after the events of today." She glanced down at their daughter as she said this, feeling her aching muscles and tired bones telling her to follow her daughter's suit. Sighing quietly, relaxed once more, Valentine nodded and watched as the dark bay stallion moved swiftly away from them, once she was sure he would out of earshot, the mare groaned quietly and stretched before stepping toward her daughter and folding into the grass beside the snoozing foal. Venus woke for a brief moment, noting the disappearance of her father's shadow but also the comforting warmth of her mother only inches away. The little filly stretched out her head, uncurling herself to lie on her side with her head against her mother's neck. Valentine lifted her eyelids as her daughter moved, observing the surroundings before deciding that it was quiet and safe enough in the clearing to take a short nap in the spring sunshine.