Following a different path (Swede/open)

[Dusty's Girl]

Whispering sighed; she had left Cochise with his colt and lover and along the way she had run into Enchantment and his son; but with them was another mare whom Blackened was standing super close too. "Whispering!" Blackened had cried when he saw her. Smiling softly to him, she said, "Hello Blackened, still giving your father hard times?" she asked him as the colt came to her. Nuzzling him, she sighed and then turned to Enchantment. "Dad deserves nothing less than hard time for leaving mom." he said. "Which Whispering, this is my mom Jazarra." Whispering took in the mare's appearance and smiled as she lowered her head to the mare. "You have a fine stallion and son." she said. "I hope you don't mind but I tried to help heal old wounds." she said. "I thank you for trying and it seems like you have helped raise my son to be a good colt while I had been away." "I tried." was all she said. Her eyes kept going over to Enchantment who looked to be happy that he was with his family but was still making it hard on himself and not spending time with his found again mare.

[Swede]

Cochise just couldn't understand what he'd done wrong in a past life to deserve so much rotten luck. As if being a lab rat hadn't been bad enough, since escaping to the wild he'd lost his best friend, and the one mare who ever gave him a second look was as distractable as a butterfly. It felt a little harsh to think something like that about Orchid, and he was of course very fond of her nonetheless, but she had a tendency to suddenly need to attend to something and disappear for months on end- without even letting him know where she was going. At first, he'd thought she had mysteriously died; by now, he was almost used to her coming and going as she pleased.

Now, at last he had been able to see her again; but just when Cochise thought life might be back to something almost blissfully normal, she'd muttered some vague excuse of having something important to do; and just like that, she was out of his life again, leaving him lost and alone and frightened as always.

Dejected, the scrawny little pinto had returned to the watering hole; at least it was quite nice this time of year. As he meandered through the surrounding meadows, he spotted a familiar figure up ahead. Whispering... she had been nice. It was better to have some pleasant company than to lurk around on his own, right? Perhaps she would like a little bit of company too. Adjusting his course, Cochise strode towards the mare with a little bit more of a pep in his step. "H-Hello Whispering," he greeted, and then faltered immediately upon noticing the other horses for the first time. Two of them were stallions, and they were huge. The big tough stallions were usually the meanest ones, and these guys were intimidating. But he'd already said hello to Whispering, there was no way he could make an unnoticed beeline for the exit now.

[Dusty's Girl]

Whispering turned when she heard the voice she had come to know well. "Whispering who is he?" Blackened said as his ears went back and shook his head. Snaking her head to the colt; she nipped at him which shocked the young one. "He is a friend and you will show respect." she snorted before walking over to Cochise and extending her muzzle to greet him. "Don't worry about them." she said to him. "They are like family and they are the only ones whom I will stand against if I have too." Looking over to Blackened, she sighed as Jazarra was trying to keep her son from doing damage to his father. "The youngster is Blackened Gold and the stallion is Golden Enchantment; the mare, I have just met but she is Jazarra." she added as she looked back to her friend.

Jazarra sighed as her stallion, her love, started away from her and their son, but she had to try, "Enchantment!" she had called but the golden stallion didn't even stop. Sighing with a heavy heart, she turned to her son, but she didn't have the heart to tell him exactly what had happen that day. Sighing she soon walked over and stood a little ways from the group; she wasn't use to this hatred that her son held for his father; she remembered the love that shone in Blackened's eyes at one time.
Whispering had been watching all this and sighed. "You think you can handle this?" she asked him softly. Since meeting the family, her stuttering had slowly gone away but she still had times where she felt frightened by others.

Enchantment had had a magnificent reunion with Jazarra but with how their son would barely let him near her, but he could understand why. It broke his heart to be so far from her with her only feet from him, but he would let his son be the guardian; he was tired of the guilt he carried within himself for a full year. Sighing heavily, he looked back to the group and smiled to himself, sooner or later, Blackened could run him out of the little band and keep Whispering and Jazarra with him and Enchantment; well he would be out in the cold without anyone to keep him happy and even if he had found someone, he wouldn't even begin to love them as he did his family. Shaking his head, he sighed once more and laid in the shadows of the trees over head, knowing that the stallion who had come into the area was of no threat to him or his son, or even to the mares. He trusted Whispering.

Blackened watched his father leave and shook his head hard, knowing that it was just a plan to worm his way back into their hearts and have their love once more. His mother may let his father back in without a second thought, but he wasn't going to fall for that act. Turning back to whispering and her friend, he arched his neck in a threatening way, only to have Whispering snap at him. "Alright little one, you may be able to make your father feel bad, but you will not give Cochise a hard time." "But whispering, how do we know-" Whispering sighed and nudged Cochise back a little from the colt. "Never mind him; he thinks he is what every mare wants; yet he is full of hate and hot air." she snorted. "He learned he can't mess with me a year ago."

[Swede]

Cochise stared at the unfamiliar stallions like a rabbit faced with a pack of coyotes. The older one at least seemed content to keep his distance, though Cochise still was wary of his obvious size and strength; he knew all too well that stallions could be unpredictable even at the best of times. The younger one, however, was no mystery- he was quite aggressive towards the older one, and acted like a typical cocky colt who was reaching adulthood and eager to prove himself a real stallion in the most studdish manner possible. Those were the most frightening ones, really; they were the ones who sometimes attacked without provocation just to prove a point and boost their ego. Older stallions were usually better at recognizing that Cochise was no threat; they might laugh at him, but they didn't feel the need to treat him like a punching bag.

The scrawny pinto snapped out of his thoughts as Whispering spoke to him, asking whether he could handle the situation. No way, see you later, his mind screamed. "I'm o-okay," he mumbled, before flashing a weak grin and adding, "I've seen j-just about everything, s-survived it all s-so far, so I f-figure there c-can't be much w-worse out there." It was difficult to keep track of all the horses in the vicinity, especially with one of them wandering off a distance; though he was very careful to keep the blindness in his right eye secret, it was troublesome when potential threats strayed out of his limited field of vision.

Cochise flinched when the younger stallion- Blackened Gold, that was what Whispering had called him- started posturing aggressively at him, but Whispering was quick to shut the venture down. It seemed Blackened had some respect for her, at least. Pathetic, really, that he was so afraid of someone so much younger than himself... oh where had his courage gone? He had vague memories of being a rather cheeky youngster, but that had been eradicated quickly. "H-How did you m-meet them?" he said quickly, trying to change the subject in hopes of easing the tension that hung in the air.

[Dusty's Girl]

Whispering sighed as the young colt started trouble. "Blackened, you get out of here right now." the older mare said with ears pinned back. The colt sighed and lowered his head, knowing that he been defeated by his adopted aunt. "I met them not but half a year or so back, kept these two from doing harm to one another and then I met Jaz not to long ago." Whispering said. Looking over to the group, the older mare sighed. "I-I-it's a shame at how Blackened treats his father; I would say Enchantment is about like you." she added. Whispering knew why the family band was the way it was, "I can explain what is going on here more if you would like?" she asked Cochise. Turning her head as Enchantment had gotten up from where he laid, she smiled softly to him as he made his way over to his mare.

Enchantment had watched as his son was picking on Whispering's friend and shook his mighty head. He knew that he had to deal with this and soon had gotten up. Walking over to Jazarra, he nuzzled her and then walked over to Blackened where he was sulking. "Blackened, you must behave; you can not act as the lead stallion and threaten those who come around us; or us around them. Whispering knows him, therefore we are not in danger." The golden stallion said. Blackened Gold turned his smaller head to his father and pinned his ears and lunged at his father, getting a good chunk out of his side.
Jazarra had wanted to step in, but she knew that if Enchantment didn't get their son in check, he would soon be out of control and Enchantment might lose what he had. She couldn't help but lower her head with a sigh and watch as Enchantment inspected his wound. If she hadn't be scared to step in, this would have never happened; but she had become to tame when she was with the humans and she regretted it now.

Whispering shook her head and watched as Enchantment slowly walked back to his mare's side. "I-I-I wish that I could step in and teach him a lesson, but you know how I am; to scared to do anything to help." she said to her friend. Whispering lowered head head so it drooped between her front legs. She wanted to be the brave and fearless mare her mother's mother had been. There were stories of how her grandmother had kept a rouge stallion from her herd.

[Swede]

Cochise nodded slowly, his gaze twitching between the various horses present; the mare whom Whispering had called Jazarra seemed to be relatively harmless, though paralyzed to do anything to intervene in the squabbling between her son and her mate. The other two seemed to have some serious conflict between them though, and it was not a conflict Cochise wanted to find himself in the middle of. "P-Perhaps it would b-be good to know more... I d-don't want to step on any t-toes, and it's easier to g-get along if I un-understand the situation," he mumbled distractedly. He took an unconscious half-step backward as Blackened lashed out at his sire; the further away one was from a fight, the safer it was. Enchantment did not seem to rise to the bait, however. Cochise had witnessed many different parenting styles during his travels and occasional stays with various herds, but he still could not say what was good or bad. Some stallions might have given their sons a proper beating if they'd acted up like that, while others preferred to rise above it and remain level-headed and calm. Cochise wouldn't know the answer; he had never met his father, and since Orchid had taken off without explanation, he hadn't been able to raise his own son either.

Tearing himself away from his thoughts and forcing himself to stop staring at the skirmishing stallions like a frightened dimwit, Cochise glanced sideways at Whispering. Her dismay surprised him a little; he could understand wishing to be able to fix things, but to take personal moral responsibility for it... it seemed a little idiotic. Noble though. Far more noble than any thought that had ever passed through his own skull.

"H-Hey," he said, lowering his head to bump his muzzle encouragingly against her cheek, "S-Sometimes it's g-good to be scared, I think.. I m-mean, he's l-like twice your size, you could easily g-get hurt if he reacted badly. B-Besides, it's their p-problem, they're the ones who have to f-fix it."

[Dusty's Girl]

Whispering smiled over to her friend. It was true and being scared had done its good in her life in the past. So much had been going on that she forgot about the things that kept her alive. "You're a good friend." she said as she nuzzled him slightly. Looking at the two stallions, Whispering sighed, "S-So what has been going on with you?" she asked Chochise. Turning her body away from the fighting trio, she smiled at her friend, whom she felt like was a long lost friend when she first met him. Shaking her mane, she laughed mentally at how they had first met.

Enchantment sighed as his mare came over to him and their son, this was the moment where the older stallion could turn away and rest, the old wound had been acting up, since the bullet was still in his shoulder. Sighing, he limped back over to where Whispering and Cochise was, deciding to rest beside the unusual coloring mare. "Don't mind me, I am just going to rest here." Enchantment said with a half smile.

[Swede]

Cochise shrugged. ”N-Not much,” he admitted, “M-Mostly just… wandering… hiding… l-like I always do.” He instinctively took a wary step backwards as Enchantment came towards them; even though he’d been assured that this stallion was a kind one, and there was nothing to suggest otherwise, he had naturally come to be nervous of other stallions in the wild. Many had picked on him in the past, or were just aggressive in general. It was safer to stay away from them and their mares, for the most part. But he nodded slowly as Enchantment spoke, and after a short pause, began to speak again in his typical slightly trembling voice. “I th-thought about going back to where l lived b-before, but… there’s n-nothing for me there now. The n-new stallion doesn’t m-mind me but he’s involved in a war… so a lot of n-nastier stallions are there, and m-more might come if f-fighting breaks out.”