Peaceful Night

It was a full moon tonight, Edith noted as she walked along the pasture fence. It was a clear night, no sign of clouds to obscure the star-speckled sky glimmering in its full glory above her or the bright full moon glowing back down at her to light her way in a soft silver glow.

The mare's hoofsteps were calm, no rush to get anywhere specific or a care for where she was going as she observed the night around her. She could hear the soft noises of crickets, the barely-there breeze blowing across the lands that caused the softest rustle of grass.

The night itself seemed relaxed, nature for once in harmony. Edith smiled to herself, silver tail swishing lazily behind her as she simply existed.

Climbing a hill, still following the fenceline, the blue roan mare paused at the top, staring up at the moon and drawing patterns in its various shades and shadows. It was always fascinating to see what forms and shapes she might spot, though she most often found her eyes tracing the form of what might have been a horse's head. Perhaps it was because she herself was a horse, perhaps that's what others saw as well.

She chuckled to herself, still smiling as she continued her peaceful walk under the moonlit sky. Eventually her steps slowed, gaze once more travelling from the open ground around her to the sparkling sky above her. This time her eyes followed invisible lines between the stars, tracing constellations she'd heard humans talk of or the ones her mother had once whispered about in bedtime stories.

It was a relaxing way to spend a night, simply existing and drawing shapes in the sky, wondering about the mysteries and stories the moon and its stars had seen unfold.

There wasn't much better Edith could think of doing right now.

As the blue roan mare was stargazing, a bright streak in the sky caught her attention. By the time she turned to truly look, it was gone, leaving the horse to pull a confused expression. Was she seeing things now?

Edith glared at the sky, whipping her head around when she noticed another bright streak of light in the corner of her eye, only to see it disappear just as the first one had. Alright, so she definitely wasn't seeing things! It was just that the streaks were disappearing...

She tilted her head, confused. She had never seen the sky do that before!

As she continued to watch, more streaks lit up the sky, flashing into existence before disappearing only a moment later. While at first there was only one or two of them at a time, they started coming faster and faster, more and more of them streaking across the sky at once.

Edith smiled, bursting into a gallop and running up a nearby hill for a better view, simply standing under the sky as it was filled with streaks of light.

As they continued to come, the blue roan simply watched, in awe of the lightshow she was watching. It was almost celestial, some sort of sacred performance that she was somehow lucky enough to witness as the streaks grew thicker, claiming more of the sky for themselves.

The entire thing could have taken only minutes, or it could have taken hours, before the streaks started to thin once more. Where once there would have been five, even six or seven streaks, it once again slowed to only one or two. Edith whinnied a bit, almost hoping to encourage the sky to continue its show.

Sadly, her plea went unanswered, the streaks continuing to slow as the beautiful display came to a close.

Edith stayed perched on the hill until the last of the streaks had vanished, and stayed gone for at least five minutes. With a smile still on her face, and a happy bounce to her steps, the blue roan set off at a leisurely pace once more, returning to the fence of the pasture and wandering along it.

As she was passing one of the fenceposts, a black shadow leapt onto it. She startled for a moment, taking half a step backwards before she registered the bright yellow eyes blinking at her. The cat tilted its head, tail flicking as it settled on the fencepost to simply look at the mare.

"Why, hello there," Edith murmured, slowly moving closer to the cat. She didn't want to startle the small creature, but she was curious. The stables had a couple of barn cats, but they generally did their best to avoid anyone or anything, content to simply hunt mice and occasionally be hunted down by the humans for vaccinations.

The cat meowed in response to the mare's greeting, blinking yellow eyes once. The mare smiled, inching closer and stretching out her nose to sniff the cat. One black paw raised, and the cat set it gently on her nose as it mewed.

"You're a curious thing, aren't you, little shadow?" Edith murmured. The cat's tail swished, but she could have sworn it seemed ot smile at her. It was a cute little fluff ball, the mare would give it that.

When the cat finally removed its paw from her nose, Edith looked around. "Where did you come from?" she asked, going as far as to twist and look around to see if she could figure it out.

She didn't get an answer. But she did feel something land lightly on her back, twisting her neck to look and see the cat calmly standing on her back before laying down, blinking at her as if daring her to complain.

She smiled. "Is this you saying you want a ride?"

The cat actually seemed to nod, making the mare's ears prick in surprise.

"Where to?" she inquired.

This time, her answer was a shrug, the cat seeming to relax further.

"Are you wanting to come with me?" Trying to figure this out was harder than she thought.

Her new companion nodded again though, which was a good enough answer to her.

"Alright." She smiled, setting off at a careful walk. She wasn't sure how easily a cat could stay on her back, and the last thing she wanted to do was throw her new cat friend off by going too fast.

As she walked, she could hear the cat start to purr, the vibration echoing into her back. She smiled a bit wider, tail swishing idly behind her as she enjoyed the quiet walk around the pasture with her Little Shadow settled on her back.