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Puck
It's been a year and a half since Corr died. And almost the same time for Dove. She died of loneliness. We both learned to love him more and more with time, the same way Sean and I have learned to love each other, so it wasn't a surprise for me that she died so soon after he did.
Today is the first day of November again. Someone already died in the morning. An unlucky fisher who didn't pay the sea enough attention until he was dragged to it by a Capall Uisce.
There's no moon tonight, and as I tiptoe around the house to not wake Sean, I remember someone saying that the fastest and fiercest Capaill are captured in this kinds of nights. I don't really care. I just want to stop Sean from loosing his magic. He bought another horse for me as soon as I felt ready to connect with another horse. One from Holly's. A beautiful one. Apolo. Even though we have more than enough from our own stables. And he rides every horse we own, but I know there's no comparing them to a Capall. And never to Corr. It's the same for me with Dove. He's been refusing to buy one too...
So, I slip from our bed, I put on some riding clothes and his old jacket that I use now. It's still filled with everything he always used to work his magic, so I don't bother to go collecting things around the house. Just one thing. A woven halter I've been waving since he got me that stallion.
I find it where I had left it, just behind a box of painted cups that I know Sean won't even look at unless I tell him Finn and I painted them.
I get out and head straight to the beach. I pray to the sea, the way Sean has taught me, and ask it to help me catch a Capall for him. And to help me get back home safely with it. A strong wind answers my prayers and I can just wince at it. I wish I was in Sean's arms.
Then, I wait. And as I do, I can't help but remember all the times I saw him catch Capaill. All the times he worked magic on them. I hope I can work at least half of it.
The sea is calm. Unnaturally so, if you ask me, but that's what makes it easy to spot it. There's a nose far into the sea. I know it's a nose even with no light because Sean taught me to recognize them from fish and anything else. It disappears from view for a moment and appears again nearer to the beach. I can hear the breath it takes from here. Smell it. It goes down the water again, and when it appears again, the whole head follows. It is indeed fast. It had been at least a kilometer away, but now, in a matter of seconds it's a matter of meters out of the beach.
It doesn't struggle with the water, as I've seen others do. This one looks like it works with it, and with the water so calm that it looks inoffensive, it looks almost surreal. It even looks elegant how it comes out of the water step by step, as calm as the sea. The head, the neck, the back and hindquarters, the shoulders, the legs, and finally the hoofs. It's a beautiful dappled gray. It sniffes the air and faces my direction. Then, it sings to the ocean as a lover would.
I step forward, to it, and it catches its attention. It is taller than any Capaill I've ever seen, and instead of wondering if this is the last thing my parents saw before dying, I wonder what would Sean do to take it home safely.
I imitate the way Corr used to call other horses. A foreign sound to my throat until Sean and I started living together. I giggle involuntarily as a memory comes to mind. Sean had caught me calling back to Corr with the same sound Corr did. Corr's ears had pointed to me immediately and his eyes went big with surprise. He answered my call and I answered back. He stood with his neck straight up and his head held high. His tail swishing this way and the other, like a colt who just found another to play with. Sean hadn't seen Corr like that and after making him calm down, he scolded me endlessly.
The Capall infront of me reacts the same way Corr had, but a bit more violently. It dances around me, sniffing the air and swishing its tail, as it calls to me and I answer in kind in-between giggles. Then, it launches its head to me intent on bitting. Just as I start to move, I feel a tug at the back of Sean's jacket, and then, there's Sean, instantly at the Capall's side, whispering magic into its ear and making it look like a puppy. The Capall doesn't even struggle. It relaxes as much as the sea, and to Sean's surprise, it lets me put the halter on its head without so much than a sniff its way.
Ever the cautious man, he draws a circle in the sand around the animal before facing me as if I myself was a wild Capall.
"Puck- no, Kate Connolly, what the fuck are you doing?"
He never swears, not with me in the room, not if I'm not there. He just doesn't. Oh, but when he does... He's either seething, terrified, or fucking with me in bed. And well, this certainly isn't our bed.
"I..."
"I wake up in the middle of the night to find your side of the bed not only empty, but cold, and after searching for you every where, I find you here, alone? What even came over you? You don't just come catch Capaill alone!"
"You did."
I murmur, half in a trance. It's so rare of him to show so much emotion, that when he does, it's impossible for me to look away.
"I- what?"
"You caught Capaill alone."
That leaves him without words. That too, is strange. I advance on him. He's still. As still as Corr was when Sean bandaged his legs with seaweeds. As still as the Capall in the circle, watching us attentively. As calm as the sea, and the wind and the cliffs.
I get into his space and lift my hands to caress his cheeks. I kiss him, making him relax. His hands come to my sides, carefully, the way he puts his hands to a horse's shoulder when he wants them to stay still.
"I'm sorry. I wanted it to be a surprise, the way you did with Apolo. I'm sorry I worried you. I didn't think on that."
He let's go of a breath and hugs me fully, hiding his face in my neck, in my hair. Breathing there, the way he made the Capaill breath on his jacket.
"You're worse than the sea."
I laugh in his arms.
"I did ask the sea for help as you taught me."
"I'd be surprised if it didn't hear you out, you dangerous wild Connolly."
"I asked for help to go home safely." I huff. "I believe that's why it woke you up and brought you here."
He grunts and lets some of his weight to fall on me. He's so similar to Corr, to Dove... they'd get comfortable that way too, letting you carry some of their weight. Sometimes their head, sometimes they just leaned onto you.
"Please, don't do it again."
"Then accept this Capall, or I swear I'll come down here every night until you take one home and go back to being yourself."
He laughs, kisses my hair and goes to pick up the halter's lead.
"I was waiting for November to come down here myself."
He breaks the circle and we begin our way back home.
The Capall is so well behaved, he enters the races that same November, and wins.