Sassafraaz

Of the four mares that had first discovered him convalescing, only one had stayed. Shelley was a welcome constant, once she was away from her more vocal peers. She didn't ask too many questions; unlike the other mares, or Harker. Dullahan still couldn't quite hold it against Irascible. She was young. And alone. He did wonder sometimes what had become of her; if she'd found Harker after all -- they would get along -- or some nice herd had taken her in. He shouldn't have left her, even though that hadn't entirely been Dullahan's fault, but he'd had to pretenses of playing pretend herd with her the way Harker had seemed to suggest. Shelley should leave him. Dullahan chanced a glance back at the mare as they wandered the forest. She was younger than him, certainly not anywhere near Irascible's age, but the point still stood. She would be better off somewhere else, with someone else, not playing pretend here with him. It was different when it had been Stein as his constant --

Freeing the horse Koja had confused for a moose is quick work. "The canyon's haunted you know," Cain, the stranger, explained while Rackham worked to free him. "There wasn't any reason for this rock slide. I'm not usually that clumsy." Ripley looked to Koja and Petri at the idea of a rock slide. He had a bit of a working theory as to what might have actually caused it. He guessed it was just a good thing the colts had confused Cain for a moose, otherwise who knew how long the other stallion would have been trapped down there thanks to them. "How do you mean, haunted?" Rackham asked. The brothers had never been superstitious - At least, their birth herd never had been. Maybe Rackham had gone and gotten easier to spook without him. But he didn't sound scared, for now, just interested. "There's stories," Cain looked to the foals and calf accompanying them, as if considering how detailed to be with these stories. "About a herd that went mad or something, and went over the edge. Now

There weren't any moose in the area. Granted, it was difficult to cover much ground with three foals and a moose calf, but on occasion one of the bachelors would strike out further ahead to do some real searching. All of them came back sans moose. After Doyle came back, the colts decided they should take a turn. They didn't ask, of course. There was only a moment of conspiratorial whispering before the two shot off from the herd. Lottie and the moose calf started to follow, but when it became clear Koja and Petri would not be slowing down for them, they slowed to let the bachelors catch up to them. "Don't go far!" Ripley called after the colts. It just felt like the thing to say. They wouldn't listen, probably. And there wasn't much he could do to prevent or punish them. "Mind your mother!" Lareth called next and cast a cocky look to Ripley. He knew what he was doing. He definitely knew that would earn him a swift kick and another stupid scuffle. The bachelor's squaring off had

"That's a moose!" Doyle exclaimed after the stork had flown away. The calf was just that, a baby, though it stood shoulders above the foals already. Lottie, of course, took to making friends immediately, while Koja and Petri hung back until the filly called for them to join. The bachelor's remained in their own clump. Ripley wasn't sure everyone else was so much thinking on what to do next as - at least in Rackham and Doyle's case - waiting for him to make some kind of call about it. They didn't exactly have much else they were supposed to be doing. Tracking down a herd of moose wasn't hard either, they were moose after all, but... "Well that one's really not one of ours, is it?" Lareth laughed with a pointed look to Ripley. The foals weren't a bad idea, Ripley was still sure of it. Someday, the right mares were going to feel sorry for them all and stick around... But moose weren't exactly mares. Rackham huffed. Ripley had been wondering when his brother was going to get fed up

Rackham thought the gaggle of colts following his brother were a riot. Ripley didn't think he had much room to talk, let alone laugh. He'd already strung Lottie along and in turn she'd been the one leading Rackham and some other poor stallion racing out of a ticket, pursued by something so terrible, neither adult horse seemed able to describe it sensibly. At least when Ripley had to go defending his colts - not that they were *his* - he'd actually gone and done the job. Never mind that Lareth had chosen to hang around. They looked like a proper herd now. Just forgetting some mares, for the moment. Rackham had been the first to say it, once Koja, Petri, and Lottie all began to make a game out of being underhoof. They had plenty more hooves to choose from now. Rackham thought it was cute, of course, resulting in that 'proper herd' thing. His new best friend - Doyle - just agreed. "We're not a herd." Lareth corrected them before Ripley could. For all the bluster of their first