"Lunaria, please come with me."
"I'm sorry, Hylzarie, I have to stay here with the herd. You understand." I said to the stallion.
Like I said, I was the Lead Mare, which meant most stallions adored me. I've learned that some only want the power of being Lead Stallion.
There's still a Lead Stallion, but we're not mates. I assigned him only so that the spot was filled. It's not that I don't trust Denali, we've been friends since we were foals. It's just custom that the Leads are mates.
I'm pretty sure I'm one of the first Leads that doesn't want a mate. I feel that I should dedicate all of my time to the Herd like I'm doing now.
"Luna!" I heard someone calling me by my filly-name. Only one other horse ever called me that.
"Titanius! How's the hollow?" my brother had just come back from guarding the Life Tree. I kept assigning him there for moons because I knew he'd do nearly anything for the herd. If I hadn't been born first he would be Lead, so it was in his nature.
"Safe. For now," he replied.
"Good. Stay here for the night, the others can keep watch without you."
"Are you sure?" I nodded.
He trotted off to a good grazing spot. I walked the opposite way, trying to catch the last few rays of sun as it set. I watched as the blood-red sun slipped below the horizon, casting my herd into the shadows.
I ran to the edge of herd land. It was smaller and smaller every day thanks to the lumberjacks. I knew it was a humanspeak word, "lumberjack", but I had heard them call themselves that.
Yes, I had my fair share of spying, mostly right before the sun set so the herd would think I was going for a run. And I was, it wasn't a full lie.
I felt bad even half-lying to my herd, but I didn't want them worrying about me and I wanted to learn as much as I could about the humans and their horses. And the only way I could do that was to sneak around a little bit.
I looked around, and all I saw was the work horses hauling away more logs. I saw the shiny sap on a thick log, signifying it was connected to the Life Tree more than the rest. I whinnied in disgust. "How could they do something like that?"
I watched them walk into the distance. I made sure they were all gone before coming out of the bush I had been hiding behind. I hadn't purposely been hiding, it was just a habit.
I slowly turned and walked away, my head down. 'What would happen to my herd once they got to us?' I thought.
I knew I couldn't let my herd just disappear, we'd been here since before anyone could remember. But I also knew that I would do anything to protect my herd. And that's exactly what I was going to do.
