[Gift] Prompt 7 - Santa’s Little Helper (Gift)

The raspberry dun stallion tossed his head, his faded roan coat nearly blending into the snow falling quietly around him. He’d smelled it long before it started, the scent of cold on the air that was hard to define and yet impossible to mistake for anything but snow. Even ice had a different scent. Sharper, perhaps was the word the stallion could use to describe it. 

He dashed long the fence line, chasing a few snowflakes, the cold keeping most everyone else to the stables or nearby shelter. Even the stable hands had brought the feed and gone back inside quickly. More quickly than they should have, he had a funny feeling either his fiery rider or the yellow-eyed woman would have words with them regarding. 

The ground wasn’t hard yet, his hooves leaving divetts along the path he’d taken. He loved the cold and snow, the blue of the sky above, the way the sun caught the snow as it fell. 

He kicked up his hind legs, the small white stockings momentarily catching the sun just like the snow. He liked the looked. It suited him, or so he thought. It suited him enough he did it again, just to watch his own faded blue boat shine in the sunlight. It wouldn’t last long. Most likely the clouds would be too think before long, the bright sunshine gone until the storm broke to reveal a blanketed world. 

The sun kept elements of the chill away, so he veered away from the shade cast by the trees near the edge of the field. He had on a black blanket, emblazoned with fire and the emblem for Thorn Rose Stables. One was his rider, the other was where he was boarded. 

It was thick and warm, even in the cold, the fabric neatly quilted. He’d never had a blanket this nice before, and it was cleaned regularly. 

With that thought in mind, Faded Coat of Blue flopped over on the not quite frozen ground and rolled around happily. It scratched a few itches he had, and the cold from the ground was buffered against by the thick coat he wore. It didn’t even get it too dirty as the ground wasn’t quite frozen, but it wasn’t as muddy as it could be either. 

His jagged sabino markings were definitely dirty though, the white now stained with flecks of mud and dirt where the blanket didn’t cover them. He didn’t mind though. If anything, he wished the ground was a little softer so he’d have gotten muddier. Then they’d have had to take him inside and get him cleaned up. He didn’t want to leave the falling snow, but Thorn Rose had heated water and he enjoyed bath time. 

The clouds started moving in faster, the sun growing dimmer as the snow started to fall faster. He stuck his tongue out, catching a few of the flakes before kicking up his heels and bolting for the shelter. It wasn’t too cold yet, but it would get that way quickly. 

The temperature had already dropped noticeably by the time by the time he reached the generous and well constructed shelter. The doors were wide, but angled keep the wind out and the warmth in. The windows had some kind of clear covering over them that still let the horses watch the world outside but didn’t let the space get cold, and the water never froze in the troughs. 

The windows now had a thin layer of frost on them, making the snowy world beyond look like a kind of kaleidoscope of colors. Faded Blue Coat was mesmerized, munching on the provided feed as he watched the snow outside through the fractured pattern of the frost, the other horses in the shelter providing warmth and companionship. He could get used to this.