[Gift] Prompt #20 - Good Tidings To You And Your Kin

[Marinka’s POV]
Bauble Bingo prompt #20 - Good Tidings To You And Your Kin - Pine Creek Stables

It was a chilly winter evening when Marinka wiggled her nose through the layer of fresh snow to find the dry, partially frozen blades of grass. The hay rack she shared with Renata and Cosmic earlier was nearly completely empty now, but she had abandoned the shelter early to wander the fields again.

The snow from that morning had stopped around half an hour ago, leaving the scenery in a new layer of blue-ish snow carpet. It was soft to walk into, and not a bother to move around to find her grass. Only her nose felt tingly as it slowly lost warmth. Behind her, she could hear the quiet plowing of Renata coming her way. The hay rack was probably empty now. Cosmic followed suit, picking up pace with his smaller foal legs.

The three of them bundled together, Cosmic sticking his nose into the trail of pushed away snow to find the leftover grass. ‘’You know, if you do as we do, you can get more grass, right?’’ Renata noted when Cosmic sneakily got into her trail. ‘’You don’t have to pick the scraps.’’

‘’But my nose will get cold!’’ Cosmic complained. ‘’And you’re bigger! You push away more snow.’’ Renata chuckled. ‘’Alright, get in here then.’’

Marinka softened her gaze as Cosmic and Renata stood shoulder to shoulder, practically eating the same blade of grass as Cosmic got into the freshly pushed away snow to get the grass she uncovered. There were few horses in the yard, and from the ones that lived here, these two were the ones that felt closest to her. Despite their ranging personalities, she felt at ease sharing a field with them. It kept her on her toes, every day bringing something new.

‘’Marinka! Guys! C’mon!’’

Marinka looked over her shoulder at the familiar sound of her rider. She was accompanied by two other people, who stood with waving halters. It was time to go inside then.

‘’Awhh, no~ not yet,’’ Cosmic whined and gave a little protesting buck away from Renata. ‘’I’m not tired yet!’’ With a rooff Cosmic ran off when his handler approached. ‘’Oh come on Cosmic!’’

Marinka flared her nostrils in amusement. Eyeing Renata, Marinka felt a little mischievous voice call in her head. A little voice that said ‘’Run off Marinka, have a little fun before bedtime.’’

Renata nodded her head and together they took off, snow blasting around. Ottilia was left flabbergasted at the sudden decision of her mare. Normally, she’d always come when Ottilia called. Now? Looks like they were all in on a joke.

With a couple paces, the two mares were caught up with the little colt, bolting around and letting hooves fly around. Carefully of course, to not hit each other by accident. ‘’This is so fun~!’’ Renata screamed over the wind that sheared by their ears. Marinka had to agree, a life without a bit of mischief was a boring one.

‘’Let’s race, last one around the field has to go inside!’’ Marinka bolted off after her challenge, her opponents quickly taking after her. Cosmic was surprisingly fast for his size, zooming through the corners and secretly cutting them off a bit to gain meters on them.

‘’Hey! Cheater!’’ Cosmic giggled and left them in the dust when Renata called after him. ‘’Oh that little-!’’

Marinka let out a full laughter and bumped her shoulder into Renata, looks like we lost Ren.’’ With a huff from her friend, the two mares came to a slippery stop near their riders, who quickly jumped out of the way to not get a load of snow on top of them. Cosmic pranced around, tail proudly out and ears sticking up. ‘’I~ won~, I~ won~.’’

Marinka stuck out her tongue at him and let Ottilia put the halter around her head. ‘’We’ll see about that tomorrow. Rematch!’’