Nutmeg and Foal

Gwen stood out in the rain, her head tipped up to enjoy the downpour. The water fae loved a good storm, and while this one had come out of nowhere, that didn’t make the water any less welcome. Uiscefhuaraithe stood next to her, the blueberry sabino mare enjoying the rain as much as Gwen was. 

They’d been on their way to Applewood when the storm hit, the white fences and slowly changing leaves of the trees had just become visible when the sky started to darken with clouds that obscured the early morning sun to a point it was very nearly as dark as night. 

The low rumble of thunder had heralded the storm, along with a gust of wind that sent the earliest of the autumn leaves to the ground. Gwen had dismounted to give Uiscefhuaraithe a break just as the first droplets fell, and then the torrent soon followed.  

“Come on, we should get to Applewood. I know you and I don’t mind the rain, but I suspect they’d prefer to have everyone in with it storming like this. No point making them worry.” Gwen patted Uiscefhuaraithe’s neck and started to walk down the road. She didn’t bother to mount as it wasn’t that far a walk and both of them were enjoying themselves. The only thing she did was loosely secure the reins in her hand, not that she figured the blueberry mare was likely to bolt even with the thunder. The mare enjoyed the storms as much as she did. 

As they approached the stables it quickly became apparent that something was wrong. People were moving about and shouting orders that Gwen couldn’t quite make out over the wind from the storm. 

She looped Uiscefhauraithe’s reins through one of the hitching posts and snagged a nearby worker. “Hey, what’s going on?” 

The man looked at her and gestured to the far end of one of the pastures. “We’ve got a few mares and foals missing. The storm took out part of the fence and we weren’t able to get all the mares and foals inside. There’s three pairs missing. We've got folks already out searching, but we wouldn’t say no to another pair of hands.” 

“Of course.” Gwen nodded and started out towards the pasture with Uiscefhuaraithe in tow. The mare walked along beside her, mud splashing up her white front legs only to be immediately washed away by the rain. 

The pasture was a mess of downed branches and smaller debris left scattered from where a larger tree had come crashing down, the fence it hit now in tatters. One of the people trying to clean up the mess spotted her and Uiscefhauraithe, flagging her over to the fence. 

Uiscefhauraithe followed alongside Gwen at an easy pace, her blue eyes taking in the chaos through the still pounding rain. The mare’s blueberry tale swished in the rain sending droplets flying, though it was doubtful anyone would notice amongst all the rain. 

“We need searchers by the river!” The man shouted, waving her out towards the woods. “There’s three pairs of mares and foals missing.” 

Gwen nodded and used an unbroken part of the fence to swing up onto Uiscefhauraithe. The sabino marked mare shook her head once before heading into the woods at Gwen’s direction. 

It didn’t take long to find the river, the water loud and rushing even in the storm. It looked like the rains had caused a significant flash flood, the banks of the river no longer even visible beneath the torrent of water. 

Gwen was careful to keep Uiscefhauraithe out of the water. The mare normally enjoyed wading in streams and rivers, but navigating a flood was different. Even one wrong step would see the ground giving out and the horse downed and potentially carried away. 

The water fae and Uiscefhauraithe moved along the river bank as tree limbs and bits of debris raced by, carried by the rushing current of water. 

Uiscefhauraithe moved carefully along the muddy ground as uninterested in accidentally getting carried away as Gwen was. The mud squelched around her hooves as they picked the path along the flooded river. It was probably pretty when it wasn’t so angry, but for the moment the raging current was nothing but a hazard. 

The embankment changed some, the flood pattern indicating a shallower part of the river. Gwen slowed Uiscefhauraithe. If the pair had crossed the river at any point before it flooded, this was likely where they’d done so. The rain made visibility difficult, but not impossible but they’d have to be going slow enough to hear or spot the pair. 

As they were walking slowly along the path, Uiscefhauraithe paused and flicked her ears in the direction of the water before stopping and turning her head as if curious about something. Gwen didn’t urge her forward, the mare having clearly heard something. Instead, she stood up ever so slightly in the stirrups and looked out across the river. 

It wasn’t long before a flash of lightning revealed both the mare and foal on the other side of the river. The mare was mostly white, making her easy to see even in the rain. She was a pretty walnut leopard appaloosa, though something in her coloring made Gwen look twice. Maybe some kind of chimera, though the water fae wasn’t overly worried about it at the moment. 

The foal was a darker color, more a sooty latte with white blanket and the jagged markings of a tobiano. It was keeping close to its mother as the pair seemed to be pacing the side of the water looking for a way to cross. Fortunately it seemed both had the sense not to try and cross it. 

Uiscefhauraithe danced at the edge of the water, her blue eyes now focused on the mare and foal across the way. 

“Easy, girl. No point trying to cross if we can’t do it safely. If they try to come to us, we’re going to have problems.” Gwen slipped down and walked to the edge of the racing water, keeping a firm grip on Uiscefhauraithe. “Just got to find somewhere safer for all of us to cross is all. We may have a little more luck upstream.” 

Gwen led Uiscefhauraithe upstream, hoping for another shallower crossing, but as soon as they started to get out of sight of Nutmeg and the foal, Uiscefhauraithe would pull and try to go back. 

“You can’t cross there!” Gwen shook her head after the third failed attempt at getting further upstream. “We have to move upstream. There’s nowhere to cross here. Maybe there’s a bridge or somewhere there's a sandbar that hasn’t gotten completely submerged, but there’s no safe path here.” 

Uiscefhauraithe gave her an annoyed look and tossed her head defiantly, which was unusual for the mare. Normally they were easy going and bidable, but apparently a flood was the time to be stubborn. 

“Fine…” Gwen said after one more attempt to get the mare to come further upstream. She led Uiscefhauraithe further away from the water but where the blueberry mare could still see Nutmeg and the foal before looping the mare’s reins around a branch and securing them. The location was far enough from the water’s edge that flooding was unlikely to reach her, but the reins were just loose enough a really good tug from Uiscefhauraithe would undo it. “Stay here and keep an eye on them. I’ll find a crossing.” 

This seemed to be the solution Uiscefhauraithe wanted, the mare now calm. She whined to Nutmeg, the other mare’s ears turning that direction as the foal looked past her curiously. 

“Don’t go trying to coax them into crossing…” Gwen called back as she started to once again make her way along the edge of the river, looking for somewhere safe to cross. 

She followed the river upstream until she found a spot where a large tree had come down across a narrow point. It wasn’t an ideal crossing, but it was probably big enough to accommodate a horse and foal if they all took it slowly and carefully. 

She looked back towards Uiscefhauraithe and debated her next course of action for a moment. The pair of them had made several similar crossings in the past and the presence of a calm horse would potentially help with the other two. She knew nothing of Nutmeg and the foal’s personality, so if they were likely to spook or balk or take to the lead well was a wildcard. 

With a sigh she walked back to Uiscefhauraithe and untied the mare. Fortunately it wasn’t all that far and Nutmeg and the foal were still visible on the other side of the river, pacing nervously. 

“Okay I found a way across and I’m gonna need you, so please cooperate.” Gwen untied Uiscefhauraithe and wrapped the reins around her hand loosely, starting to lead the mare towards the downed tree. 

As soon as they got out of sight of Nutmeg and her foal, Uiscefhauraithe balked a bit and whinnied loud enough for the pair to hear. Much to Gwen’s initial alarm and then surprise, the pair on the other side of the river followed the sound but didn’t attempt to cross the river. Instead they seemed to be keeping pace along the flooded banks on the other side. 

By the time they reached the tree, the water had risen some from the continued rain but the crossing looked to be safe still. The angle the tree was wedged at made it moving unlikely, if not impossible. 

Gwen led Uiscefhauraithe onto the tree, breaking away a few branches in their path as they navigated the wide trunk. Nutmeg and the foal continued to pace on the other side, occasionally calling to Uiscefhauraithe. The blueberry mare would occasionally call back but was more focused on not falling off the tree. It was wide enough and the trunk surprisingly stable even when wet, the bark’s texture actually making for a good surface. Gwen walked ahead, snapping off branches along the way to make sure the path was as clear as possible for Uiscefhauraithe now, and the other two later. 

Once they stepped off the tree on the other side, Nutmeg and the foal rushed to greet them, the white spotted mare and the blue mare touching noses as the coffee colored foal tried to hide in its mom’s walnut colored tail. 

Gwen watched them for a moment before separating them just long enough to get a spare halter on both Nutmeg and her foal. She then did something she knew was risky but saw no other way of managing. She tied Uiscefhauraithe and the foal to a nearby tree and started leading Nutmeg across. There was no way to do all three safely at the same time, and certainly not allowing the foal to attempt walking alongside their mother on the tree. It was a wide tree, but not that wide. 

Nutmeg resisted and the foal started screaming for the mother immediately, though Uiscefhauraithe tried their best to calm them down. Eventually the blueberry mare mostly succeeded, a glance back by Gwen showing the foal now just pace nervously back and forth. Uiscefhauraithe was nuzzling at it and using her own body to keep the foal in place and from having too much room to run or risk hurting itself.  

The foal quiet, Nutmeg didn’t resist as much, allowing Gwen to lead her to the other side. She secured Nutmeg to the tree and returned for the foal. 

Getting the foal across was harder. While it was old enough to be steady on its feet, it was also terrified and in a hurry to get to its mom. Gwen couldn’t blame it. Between the flood and the rain and the thunder and lightning, she’d probably have been scared too. 

When they were about halfway across the tree, a loud clap of thunder caused the foal to try and bolt. The thunder had come at almost the exact same time as lightning and Gwen hadn’t been ready for the sudden tug from the foal. The latte colored foal slipped on the wet bark as they tried to bolt and fell, their legs straddling the tree in an ungainly position only a foal could manage. Gwen nearly toppled off and into the water, narrowly catching herself on one of the few remaining branches. 

“Don’t be hurt… Don’t be hurt….” Gwen said as she scrambled for the foal that was trying to get itself up. 

Fortunately there were no signs of serious injuries to the foal. They were just a little stuck in a position where they couldn’t get their legs under them. 

“Okay, please don’t kick me.” Gwen managed to get to the side of the foal and with a good amount of effort, lifted it back to its feet. The foal nearly ran off as soon as its feet were on the ground, but Gwen managed to keep it in place. 

The water fae readjusted her grip on the reins and decided to risk walking right next to the foal. She knew she risked falling on, but better her than the foal. By the time they reached the ground on the other end, Nutmeg was pulling almost enough to break free. 

“Hey, they’re here and safe.” Gwen tied the foal next to Nutmeg as the two nuzzled each other and seemed to want to try and occupy the same space at the same time. 

She then walked back to get Uiscefhauraithe, the blueberry mare waiting patiently for her. She untied Uiscefhauraithe and walked them back across the tree without any mishap. 

As soon as they were across Nutmeg and Uiscefhauraithe once again butted noses and spent a minute talking to each other. Gwen took advantage of the moment to catch her breath, the repeated crossings having taken their toll on the fae. 

Uiscefhauraithe moved alongside Nutmeg, the foal sandwiched in between. The two mares then looked at Gwen expectantly, as if the next step was all on her. 

“I’m not going to be able to ride you if you’re all standing that close together. I’ll end up kicking the foal somehow.” 

Uiscefhauraithe and Nutmeg once again exchanged glances. 

“Fine.” Gwen snagged everyone’s reins or lead ropes and started walking back towards Applewood. With the rain still coming down in buckets it was easier to just not argue, and besides, if it kept the foal calm then it was probably worth it. 

By the time they reached Applewood, Gwen was more than ready to hand off Nutmeg and the foal to the eager stable hands but she kept Uiscefhauraithe’s reins. “No, I’ll take care of her. She earned it today. You should also probably spoil those two. They were smart enough not to try crossing back over the river and they were very brave coming across the tree with us.” 

“A tree? You crossed the river on a tree?” The stable hand shook their head, seeming alarmed. “With all three of them?” 

“Only way across.” Gwen shrugged and started to lead Uiscefhauraithe towards an empty stall. “I’ll explain more after a bit of a nap.” 

The stable hand nodded and took Nutmeg and the foal towards another stall, occasionally glancing back at Uiscefhauraithe and Gwen as if they were nuts.