Work Text:
The filly tosses her head, thick gray mane flying off of her neck momentarily before flopping back down as the boy watches. Caleb glances up at his master, eyes wide.
“She’s so….Big.”
The woman laughs softly, nodding in agreement as he turns back to the horse. “She is.” As they watch, the horse stares at them for a long moment before picking up a smooth, floating trot, heading in their direction before arcing gracefully away. She picks up a canter only seconds later, strides eating up the ground even as she barely appears to be touching it.
“You’ll need a mount before long,” Depa muses quietly. Caleb can’t take his eyes away from the sight of the creature, even as his master continues. “You should be getting your lightsaber soon, too. A little under eight moons, maybe.” A beat. Then, “She would be old enough by then.”
“What’s her name?”
As if able to hear them, even from several hundred meters away, the filly turns and starts cantering toward them. She skids to a stop, tossing her head again and shoving her face into Caleb. The boy giggles, rubbing her forehead as Depa answers.
“Taibhse. It means ‘ghost.’”
“‘Ghost.’ I like th- hey!” The boy’s interrupted as the filly shoves her head into his chest again, whickering quietly.
“She’s destrier-bred, too. From one of the best lys hett lines. And it looks like she’s already made her decision,” the faerie observes with amusement, smiling as the boy gently shoves the filly back before she nudges him again. Barely four, she’s already three feet taller than the Padawan, though Caleb is still on the short side. By the time both of them are grown, however...Depa knows they will be among the best warriors their Court has to offer.
She turns and starts to leave. “I’ll leave you two to get further acquainted,” she calls over her shoulder. She doesn’t hear a verbal answer from Caleb, but by the continued laughter and whinnies between him and Taibhse, she knows that they’re in agreement.
As she continues to walk away, however, tail waving lazily over the very tops of the grass as she walks through it, she catches the first of the boy’s verbal exchanges with the filly.
“We’ll stay together, right? Even if something happens to all of this?”
The horse nickers in response, and Depa hopes that they will never have to test that promise.