Some Days, I Hate Everything

[RandomWiktor]

The story so far:
A mare and her foal recently escaped from captivity are confronted by some unwanted company in the form of a wayward sterile stallion and an oblivious gelding. After some tense interactions, the group realizes the grasslands are on fire and their lives are at risk, and the gelding thus attempts to lead the group to safety. During their retreat towards the Great River, they find themselves stampeding alongside two geldings who recently left their herd, and an injured mare. The group bands together for safety, crossing the river with some difficulty due to the young and wounded members among the group. The sterile stallion begins to earn the escaped mare's trust when he helps her move her frightened foal across the river. The wounded mare nearly collapses in the river but is assisted by the odd gelding. Once on the other side, the group seems to be tentatively considering disbanding, but ultimately begin to chat with one another in their exhausted state. It appears to be the start of a possible herd.
Origional Thread

When this thread was last posted in, it was suggested to "fast foward" to a point where the herd is formed.

[Gelding Herd]

___The plaintive shrieking and wet crunch of bones being pulverized was normally what one might hear from the prey end of an attempted hunt. Today, this was not the case. A scrawny male wolf, pelvis already shattered, attempted to drag himself away from the massive mare who was rearing over him, striking out with her dinner-plate hooves with ears pinned. He had made the grave mistake of stalking her yearling colt in desperate hunger, and now found himself faced with nature's occasional penchant for turning the hunter into the hunted. As another strong stomp connected with his side, he howled furiously, snapping futilely at the air as his body cavity doubtless began to swell with blood from internal injuries.
___"Edemona!" A strong male voice chastened the mare. The wolf attempted at turn his head to see the owner of the voice, eyes frantic with fear, only to have a strong kick land square in his temple. The animal drooped onto his side, convulsing for a few moments before becoming still, eyes rolled back and chest no longer rising and falling with frantic breaths. Bakari looked over his long, sloping back at his handiwork. Seeming satisfied, he cast his dark gaze up at the vanner mare's wild eyes. Her mane hung in a windswept tangle over her face, nostrils flared and sides heaving. The gelding shook his head; what a mess.
___"If you're going to kill a wolf, take it out quickly. In addition to avoiding some unnecessary potential for leg bites, it lets you disable a threat quickly so you can make sure the rest of its pack isn't coming." Edemona only scowled at the male's words.
___"It tried to attack Shiro. Where were you during all this, brave herd leader?" Really, what kind of herd was this? Mares having to do all the protecting.
___"Ah - sorry. He was with me." Lanjii trotted up, his mottled honey-gold sides heaving and nostrils making twin jets of pale steam in the cold morning air. A fresh sweat on the thoroughbred's sides suggested he'd been out on a good, long run. Edemona rolled her eyes; Lanjii had almost endless energy and frequently distracted the other horses with playful games of chase. Quite a silly habit, what with grazing sparse and winter coming.
___"Well maybe if one of you were around, us poor, dumb mares wouldn't have to incorrectly stomp wolves." Her word were laced with venom and she rolled her eyes before stepping away from the wolf's carcass. Its lower body looked oddly deflated and contorted from all of the hoof damage. So far as she was concerned, she'd done a pretty good job. Taking a look around to see if her colt was Ok, she was exasperated to find that he'd apparently forgotten all about the prowling wolves and was currently playing a rough sparring game with Xiric. The gray and white pony looked decidedly overwhelmed by his younger, larger opponent. Not far from them, Xolan and Kyeti watched with amusement evident on their long mule faces, massive ears perked as they alertly observed to mock-battle.
___Great, thought Edemona, heaving a sigh as she lowered her head to graze. I'm the only one in the whole damn herd playing predator control.

((Guys, even though this is a Me/Breeze plot, this herd is open to interactions w/other animals and accepts geldings and other infertile, asexual disasters into its ranks. Soo yeah. Feel free to interact... though maybe not bring your predators around with Edemona all worked up like this XD ))

[Nondaire and Albumen]

Edemona was not quite correct in her thoughts that she was alone in her prey patrol. Nondáire, in fact, was scouting for predators, and had scented a wolf a ways off during his patrol. He had been on his way toward Edemona to warn her, but the wolf got there first, and he froze upon hearing its pitiful screams and the crunch of bones.

Nondáire was not made to be a stallion, he discovered. He continued to approach, but his stomach was turning at the sound, and when he finally caught a climpse of the canine victim, he almost vomited on the spot. Edemona was torturing him without mercy, extending his suffering longer than necessary. The creature could not drag himself away, and could only howl his terror and pain. Swallowing weakly, Nondáire had turned around and trotted from the scene, the sight of the wolf's pain-contorted face haunting his vision.

He suspected he shouldn't be so badly affected. A wolf was a predator and no friend of his. Yet at the same time Edemona's treatment seemed so cruel, so unwarranted. Wolves had to eat too; why torture it because it made a poor choice? Its thin frame hinted that life had treated it badly as it was. Yet at the same time Nondáire felt that he had just fallen yet another peg. He was no great stallion if he could not handle the site of a mare defending her young. He was no stallion at all.

Nondáire sighed with relief when the wolf's screams were abruptly cut off, and then he finally turned to return to the scene. He arrived just in time to hear Edemona chastise Bakari and Lanjii. Nondáire briefly felt that he should encourage the mare, let her know that he had been watching for predators. Then he imagined her asking where he had been, and rather than approach the stallion stayed silent, eyes turned away from where he could just see the wolf among the grass. He lowered his head to graze, and was entirely unsurprised when he ate nothing, simply stood there, a mockery of a normal, content stallion with his herd.

Albumen, meanwhile, was up to no good. That, however, was how she simply spent her life. Bellemu was history to her, as he always had been. She no longer even went back to his side for protection, no longer cared to have to fight off his advances and chastisement for her actions. If he couldn't tolerate her, he wouldn't have her. Albumen had no tolerance for his ways.

However, she was still a horse, and a horse needed her herd. Hence why Albumen was making her way towards a group of horses that could only be a herd, if a strange one. There was only one mare that she could scent ((two if Trinity is still here)), but a horde of geldings, two mules, a lone stallion whose scent was odd, and a colt whose scent was simply confused. Maybe most mares would have dismissed them as a freak show, but Albumen was thrilled. She couldn't be certain, but she had a funny feeling none of these horses would be trying to mount her every five seconds, and that was a relief.

The mare reached the top of a small hill, and from there she could spot the herd. She tilted her head curiously upon what she could see. She had scented a wolf after all, and heard its panicked cries. No wonder; the one mare was huge, and she was stomping its guts out seconds before one of the geldings came over and put it out of its misery. She watched as the lone stallion suddenly turned and began a slow approach. Albumen couldn't help but grin; a stark and welcome contrast from Bellemu, indeed.

The mare seemed to be arguing with the gelding, who was joined by another. Albumen scanned the group, trying to find the colt that the mare was no doubt protecting, and discovered it among the other horses. Overall to Albumen it seemed like a delightful little herd, and so she began her approach, figuring they would notice or scent her coming and thus not bothering to even anounce her approach.

((Two aggressive mares is better than one?))

[Gelding Herd]

___If Nondaire could have any consolation about his status in the herd, he might be able to find it in Shiro-Utsuri. The half-gelded vanner colt simply adored the male since the day of the fire, looking up to him as a strong stallion role model even though Bakari more often then not tended to run the show - notably more on account of his boldness than his skill. Though in this instance he may not have seen Nondaire's attempt to warn the herd about the wolf, the young male was still astute to the fact that more often than not, Nondaire did act a bit more like a proper stallion: patrolling, more protective, warier of strangers. Thus he gravitated to the downtrodden and dejected male, and was pleased to see him when he arrived.
___Though Nondaire's primary interest seemed to be vested in laying low and avoiding looking at the wolf's battered carcass, Shiro let out a whinny and abandoned his game with Xiric mid rear to greet him. His large hooves were noisy against the packed earth as he ambled over, ears perked and both posture and pace decidedly spunky. He reared slightly on his haunches upon approaching, pawing the air, then settled down with a snort, tail flicking to and fro.
___"Hi Nondaire!" the cold chirped enthusiastically. "Did you see the wolf? It was scary!" He probably didn't realize, being young and naive, that the situation was really only all that scary for the poor, bedraggled wolf.
___Bakari, meanwhile, shrugged off Edemona's cold words with a snort and a sideways flick of his tail. It seemed his personality was coated in teflon, because criticism and hostility seemed to roll off of him with ease. So far as he was concerned, protecting Shiro was Edemona's concern and she had little right to tongue-lash him for not having done the job. He didn't grasp that things in the wild were not as they were in captivity: the nearly genderless and highly fragmented "every horse for himself!" mentality that became pervasive in a world that so utterly crushed normal social structure just didn't apply out here. Ah well; ignorance was bliss, after all, and Bakari's relentlessly upbeat demeanor was clear evidence of this adage's validity.
___It shouldn't have been surprising, in light of the male's behavioral ineptitude, that his response to the sight of an unfamiliar horse on the horizon was neither hostility nor concern that a possessive stallion might be lurking nearby. Quite contrarily, his former life of social deprivation left him pleased at the opportunity to meet any horse, so he looked at Albumen blithely with perked ears and a stupid grin lighting up his eyes. Taking a few steps in her direction, an action which only served to further annoy Edemona as he wandered away from her admonishment as though having not heard it, the gelding let out a friendly knicker, calling the mare closer.

[Nondaire and Albumen]

Nondáire wondered on occasion if there was a way to educate a youngster without breaking their heart. Perhaps he should have been flattered by the colt's attention. Instead, however, he felt it was unwarranted, and always became nervous when the colt approached. Edemona wasn't exactly the most stable animal, and he was certain that eventually she would take poorly to her colt's adoration of him. Nondáire would prefer not to be the victim of such a thing.

Still, he couldn't think of any nice way to tell the colt to leave him alone, and so when he heard the colt whinny the stallion only sighed and lifted his head. Looking at the colt only made the wolf's death seem even more pointless. Shiro wasn't exactly small, and his massive hooves could intimidate a predator as weak and pathetic as that wolf. Maybe if it was a puma, it would be excusable; he had gotten his first glimpse of one a week ago, and they looked formidable against a big colt. But that wolf? No. Shiro could probably fight it off himself, though not without injuries.

The stallion perked his ears at the colt, noting his energy. Hopefully he wouldn't want to spar; Nondáire still wasn't feeling well after looking at that wolf, and he'd probably get accused of attacking Shiro anyway. However, the colt wasn't interested in any play; he only wanted to comment on the wolf.

It took effort for Nondáire not to stare in disbelief. Scary? For who, the poor canine who had his body stomped inside-out? He may have said such a thing, too, if it weren't for the colt's innocent, cheerful expression and Edemona being no doubt within earshot. No, there was no reason to give this colt a lesson in reality.

"Yes. Very scary." His words were absent-minded; he thought it was nauseating more than scary, really...

Bakari's enthusiastic greeting, meanwhile, probably had the opposite effect he was hoping for. Immediately Albumen paused, ears slightly back, tail flicking. Why was he so enthusiastic? It reminded her too much of Bellemu, who would trip over himself to impress a mare. Yet she had definitely scented that there were mostly geldings in the group, and this male was one of them. Surely he wouldn't be so thrilled over her, then...?

Then the stallion caught her attention. At hearing Bakari, Nondáire had turned from Shiro and rapidly located the mare. Instead of approaching, however, he simply scented the air and frowned when she smelled of a stallion. It was an older scent, granted, but still there; this was a claimed mare out on her own. It could only mean trouble.

"I'll be right back..."

With those quiet words Nondáire approached Bakari and, through him, the mare. She had paused, he noticed, her eyes focused on him. Him? Nondáire looked more closely at her, then turned his gaze away. She wouldn't find anything impressive in him; he wasn't even sure why she was staring at him anyway.

Albumen, meanwhile, smiled at Nondáire's behavior. Maybe the gelding was an overenthusiastic dope, but the stallion was awkward and shy -- much preferred. Thus, the mare resumed her approach, and waited until Nondáire finally looked up again before she called out a greeting.

Nondáire didn't reply. He just stared, tail flicking.

Why was she greeting him? He pawed at the soil, eyes averted. Albumen smiled at his reaction as she continued her approach, eyes flickering between Bakari and Nondáire. This could only get interesting, and she looked forward to it...