Taka observed the camp, it was beautiful Horses basking in the sun, elegant tree leaves blocking the sun. She finally found the buckskin yearling and walked up to him. The buckskin seemed to be talking with the leader, and Taka tries not to interrupt.
"Great news Taka! Hurricane is letting you join ShadowHerd! Isn't that great!" The buckskin says almost rearing with joy. "Yes, that's wonderful." Taka smiles with delight and glanced up at a large dappled grey stallion with serious eyes.
"Father, this is Taka." The buckskin nickered as Hurricane looked down from his stone. "Nice to meet you Taka, I am Hurricane, leader of ShadowHerd." Hurricane greeted, his eyes softening. "Nice to meet you too." Taka nickered shyly, hiding behind the young buckskin. "You two go and explore the camp, and Prince you might want to show her the Golden Meadow!" Hurricane suggested as a beautiful black mare walked out from one of the resting dens.
"How are you my dear, Hurricane?" She asked with false loving eyes. "I am doing just fine, we actually have a new member of the herd, Taka." Hurricane explained as the dark mare looked upon Taka.
"Hello Taka I am Midnight Jet, but you can call me Midnight. I am the lead mare of ShadowHerd." Midnight greeted and dipped her head.
"Nice to mee-" Prince interrupted Taka, "Come on Taka. let's go see the Golden Meadow." Prince hisses as he turns his back on the leaders' and slowly walks away. Taka follows him, a bit curious why he didn't show much respect.
"Are you ok?" Taka asked. "Yeah I can explain later, come on!" Prince yelled as he began to canter off. "Wait! I can't gallop remember?" Taka says, reminding Prince as he stops. "Oh, right, sorry." Prince mutters, looking embarrassed. "It's okay." Taka smiles, and they walk shoulder to shoulder, matching their hooves.
The two yearlings finally make it to the Golden Meadow. It was a large field full of juicy green grass. "Wow, this is amazing. I never knew ShadowHerd had such grazing grounds!" Taka whinnied astonished, her dark brown eyes blazing with wonder.
"Why, thanks. Over there near the Ice River is StreamHerd's territory." Prince said, pointing with his muzzle in the direction. "I've never heard of StreamHerd. Who's the leader?" Taka asked, deep in puzzlement. "The leader is Picasso, he is a very kind stallion and is very fair too." Prince nickered as he bent his head down to eat.
"So you know a little about me, but I haven't gotten to know much about you. Who's your family?" Taka asked, dipping her head down to eat with him.
"You met my father, Hurricane. I hate him." Prince plainly says swallowing the grass he was munching on. Taka lifts her head up in surprise. "You hate Hurricane?" She asks. "No, I hate my father. Hurricane is a leader, father is a jerk." Prince says as he looks into Taka's glowing brown eyes. Taka was a little confused by Prince's words. "I can see your confused." Prince snickered. "I can explain better, Hurricane has two sides, one side is his leader side, and I like that side because he makes good decisions as a leader. His other side is his family side, and he doesn't care for me." Prince explained taking another bite of grass.
"Oh, I understand. But I also disagree with that he hates you. I can read eyes, Prince, and his eyes tell me that he is trying to care for you, it's just hard." Taka says soothingly. "Tell me why you hate him." Taka ordered, but the order wasn't stern.
"He..." It was hard for Prince to explain, his emotions took control of him, and a tear rolled down from his soft amber eyes. "After my mother ran away, to join the No-Tails, he found another mare. That mare is Midnight, and all she cares about is getting groomed and having power as a lead mare." Prince said, feeling ashamed.
"When my mother and Midnight were our age, they both fought over Hurricane, my mother was the sweetest, and won, but Midnight was broken. She wanted revenge, so she split my family apart. Midnight told my mother that Hurricane was cheating on her, Aladdin, my mother, felt horrible but fought the idea to be false. She continued to love Hurricane, until Midnight told her that I didn't love her, and treated another mare as my mom." Prince explained as Taka stared in horror.
Another tear streamed across Prince's face, as he was lost in memory. "Aladdin felt betrayed and left. She left us..." There was a long and quiet pause. "She left me." Prince came back to the real world and looked down at his hooves as tears falling down his face like a waterfall.
"I am so sorry, I never thought anyone would have a more horrible life than I." Taka didn't know how to comfort Prince, she then realized she had a certain feeling for Prince. It wasn't a 'friends' feeling, it was LOVE.
Taka came back from her thoughts and rested her head on Prince, "I'm sure life will get better." Taka said, trying her best to comfort Prince. It was dark out and all they could see were the sparkling stars. Prince picked his head back up and looked at the stars. "Isn't it nice out?" He asked. "It sure is, I've never seen anything as beautiful." Taka said comfortingly and Prince stared at her for a long hard moment.
"Would you mind telling me about your history with you family? It's ok if you don't want to." Prince asked as Taka picked her head off from his back, and stood next to Prince.
"When I was born, I saw my mother a few seconds before she died. As I got older, I found out more information about her, she was the most fearless mare, not afraid to do anything but she was always sad. Even when they had victories of defeat from a battle, she never seemed to be happy, the only time she had ever smiled was when I born." Taka felt really hot, and soon enough she felt like she was going to cry.
"Why was she so sad?" Prince asked. "I don't know this for sure but this is what my father told me. When my mother, Gloria, was an apprentice, she always got beat up by a mare named Autumn, my mother eventually got so angry she killed Autumn. Killing a herd mate changed her life, horses went to thinking a beautiful, fearless mare, to an angry monster. She was so hurt, she didn't eat or drink a lot, that's why she died giving birth." Taka looked at Prince who was in horror.
"Then, why do you hate your father so much?" Prince asked kindly and Taka didn't mind continuing.
"My father named me after trash, Taka means trash. If my mother hadn't died, I wouldn't have this stupid name that everyone makes fun of!" Taka yelled in anger but continued. "Overnight, I heard my father talking to Cloud about Gloria, that he never loved her, he wanted to kill her but couldn't. I hate my father!" Taka screamed, the found that she was crying tears of anger and heartache.
"I am so sorry, I guess our mothers' would be great friends if they ever got to know each other." Prince said comforting Taka.
"Thank you." Taka's fury died down. "I think it's late we should be heading back." Prince advised as he turned around and tracked towards camp. "Do you have a pond or a river that I can grab a drink from?" Taka asked with a dry throat.
"Yes, you see those two big bushes? Behind there should be a pond, I will wait for you near the pine trees." Prince stated as Taka walked over to the bushes.
She pushed her way through the bushes and drank out of the pond. It was cold and refreshing. She then noticed an elegant white lily floating in the river towards her. Taka looked up, water drizzling from her lips, and saw a light bay stallion standing across the pond.
Whoa, Taka thought, being astonished. He has some muscles, and he is so handsome!
"Hello, I'm Buck. I am captain of the soldiers for ShadowHerd." Buck said, trying to show off. "Nice to meet you, Buck, I am Taka, a new member of ShadowHerd." Taka said shyly, adoring his big brown eyes.
"May I just say, you're gorgeous." Buck nickered quietly. Taka's heart fluttered, she had never been called beautiful or gorgeous.
"Thank you Buck, would you like to walk back to ShadowHerd with Prince and I?" Taka asked kindly and Buck stood a little taller. "I sure would." Buck nickered as they both walked away from the pond and over to Prince.
When Prince saw that Taka was walking with Buck, he rolled his eyes and snarled under his breath. "Are we ready?" Buck asked as he led them back to camp. Taka was whispering quietly to Prince, "who is he?" Taka asked hoping to get a better respond then "Buck".
"This is Buck, my older brother." Prince stated with a little bit of annoyance in his voice. Taka looked at him in disbelief. "Never saw that coming." She said as they all went quiet.
They finally reached camp, Prince showed Taka were to sleep as Buck head towards the soldiers den. "You can sleep in here, this is the mare's den, there is an empty spot at the back, next to Ginger, she is really sweet, and great at crosscountry." Prince stated.
"What's crosscountry?" Taka asked as Prince's mouth went agape. "When your hoof gets better, I will show you, but for now get some rest. Goodnight Taka." Prince whickered as he walked off.
Taka snuck passed the sleeping mares to the very back of the den, and settled herself down next to Ginger, and fell to a deep sleep.