FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

First Furlong

Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

---

---

"It's nice to stretch my legs."

The grey mare snorts and dips her head, black forelock - in dire need of pulling - flicking to the side as her massive head bobs with her gait, slowing to a languid walk. The ground beneath her hooves, sheltered from frost only by the overreaching arms of the evergreen trees, gives slightly as she moves, providing the perfect footing to go without sending a concussive wave up her legs every time she puts a hoof down. Nostrils flaring, she tilts her head to study it, snorts and deems it acceptable - quite to her liking.

Her companion puffs up behind her, blowing hard from a brisk canter in the winter crisp - a smaller chestnut mare with a shining glow to her coat, rippling with muscle that could, ideally, have been built up a little more. Her stamina is lacking, however, and she groans at the top of the hill, head down near the ground as if to show her companion how tired the canter up the slope has made her.

Barely registering her with more than a cursory flick of her ear, the grey mare, her dappled coat riddled with cobweb markings down her legs, stands and blows.

"Are you coming?"

"I'm here, I'm here. I wouldn't have thought I was as unfit as you," the red mare grumbles, pawing at the earth. "Or un-fitter. Can't you slow down a bit?"

"I'm walking, how much slower would you like me to go?"

Humour rings through her tone, but the chestnut mare only snorts and shakes her head. Shivering in the shadows, she flicks her tail and jigs a hind hoof, if only absentmindedly.

"Let's stand and enjoy the view awhile."

And life is slow enough now, calm enough, that the grey mare is more than happy to do that and rocks her weight from hoof to hoof, looking down from the copse of trees across the farmland and the winding, sweeping cut of the canal.

"What's that?" She asks, ears pricked. "I've not seen that before."

"Like a river, only human beings put it there."

Snorting, the grey mare paws.

"I've never heard of a thing like that before. It doesn't sound right. It doesn't sound right at all."

"Don't be such a drama queen."

Rolling her eyes as if to say that she very much _wasn't_a drama queen, while confirming her companion's very words, the grey mare walks on, tail flicking lazily behind. Her companion, however, has many more things on her mind than simply enjoying a relaxing stroll out and grunts as she strives to catch him, paces floating over the ground.

"Are you going to like it here?" The red mare asks, trotting behind. "Is it nice? Is it what you thought it would be?"

"I've not been here long enough to tell."

The chestnut mare huffs and arches her neck.

"Surely you must know some?"

"You have to let me settle in, I'm sure you know all this already," the grey mare responds with sudden gentleness in her tone. "Patience is key here too, like in many other things. And this is all new to me."

"I know," the red mare sighs. "I just so badly want to be getting on with things, moving forward and getting on... You know what I mean?"

Licking her lips, her companion shakes her trimmed, black mane off her neck. A chunk slips to the wrong side, but it doesn't bother her.

"I don't know. You and I are not the same and you certainly are not the same as you normally would be. The normal is important too. The normal is the way of things."

Thinking on this, the red mare turns in a small circle, letting the grey horse get ahead of her, at least for a little while. But she doesn't want to be left behind either and groans as she trots up behind, her stride still shorter and snappier than it would have been if her body had rolled with relaxation and not ropes of strict tension.

It was easier to stiffen than to release, after all.

"So, you say you'll settle in time?" She chances at last, birds chirping as they flit by overhead. "Are you sure? What if you don't? Can you be happy here?"

"Like any other," the grey mare confirms with a stomp of a hoof. "Now, may we at least be getting on, as you say? This pace is so slow for my stride!"

But she barely gets the chance to break into her usual, long-legged trot, covering the ground easily, before her companion jumps in, words flying from her lips once again.

"By the way, do you think we should get around to introducing ourselves already?"

The grey mare grinds to a halt and stares.

"We've been here a while already, it's a little late for that."

Chuckling, the chestnut equine bobs her head, skin twitching as she shakes off a fly or two. It is not that warm though.

"Yeah, I know, but it seems about time we did it all properly. And I want to do things right going forward."

"So formal."

"I know."

Pausing, the mares look at one another, the breeze rustling through the leaves above them.

It was the chestnut mare who spoke first, breathing out her name in an exhale that came out as a sigh.

"I'm Amethyst."

"I'm Binky."

Holding out a hoof, Amethyst bobs it in the air, jigging it up and down as if she is inviting her new friend and companion to play.

"How very nice to make your acquaintance!"

They laugh, the naming of themselves, somehow, releasing the lingering tension between them. The grey mare, thus nominating herself as Binky, dips her head gently in an easy greeting. After all, nothing between them before may have been formal, yet they still know one another as well as they do. And there is much more getting to know each other's nuances to come.

Binky chews thoughtfully on their exchange, eyes dark and misty as she surveys the path ahead.

"So now that we've formally introduced ourselves, what happens now?"

Amethyst's eyes gleamed and the mare dances on her hind hooves, only just about lifting the front two from the sanctity of the ground.

"We run at our own pace. This is just the first furlong, after all."

Binky twitches her ears.

"And there's so much more left to come."