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Characters Featured: Taiv, Taiv listened to the roll of the thunder over the distant peaks, and tried to gauge how long it would be before the wind picked up in the secluded meadow where she stood watch over the small group of snowies. Summer storms descended quickly in the mountains. Although the distant clouds that were building might indicate a storm that would pass through quickly and pose little or no danger, lightning was still an appreciable potential danger to Taiv and the snowies in the meadow.
Taiv needed to be sure that she had time to get the seven beasts back down into the craggy little valley where she and the other two rangers had made their encampment for this particular summer excursion, before the potential thunderstorm descended. Taiv was up in the mountains with Dasa and Manuu this time, and together the three of them were in charge of a group of 21 snowies. Their goal for what remained of the summer was to keep the keep the big beasts safe and ensure that they got access to as much quality green grazing every day as the three rangers could lead them too. This particular section of the mountains provided a nice string of high altitude meadows, which were at their lushest now as summer was just starting to fade. The snowies were in crunching munching bliss, apparently oblivious to the far off booming of the thunder.
Taiv couldn’t help but let a little of the big beasts’ blissful contentment rub off on her as she looked out into the sunny, flower-strewn meadow and over her seven charges. Standing closest to her, determinedly munching through a stand of orange-flowered meadow-grass, Bowback seemed to be perfectly content. Bowback was an enormous but mild mannered mare of almost 16 summers. Bowie had always been particularly gentle with people, even when Taiv had helped break her to the saddle and nose-ring, before Taiv had even finished her trials. Now Bowie was one of the most placid mounts in the Itrelir herd and Taiv used her extensively for teaching youngsters the basics of riding.
This summer Bowback was getting a little respite from her teaching duties, because her foal had survived the spring. With a foal to nurture, she was allowed a lighter duty roster than the rest of the herd. In fact, Taiv and the rest of the rangers assigned to the herd worked tirelessly to give the foal every chance they could to make it through the next vital year. Bowie’s male foal, which the rangers were starting to call Greyback for his relatively dark grey coloration, was experimentally munching along beside Bowie. Although little Greyback was gamely sampling the greenery around him, he didn’t have nearly the single-mindedness of his mother and the other adult snowies had for eating the greenery. He took frequent breaks to explore the area around his mother thoroughly and to nurse. Greyback looked healthy and strong, if clumsy on his long legs. Taiv was thankful that it looked like the gentle mare’s offspring had a good chance of survival going into the autumn.
Closest to Greyback and Bowie were another mother and foal pair, and Taiv was afraid that although the foal had finally started to nurse without coaxing and had survived almost two months now, this second foal didn’t have nearly as good a chance at survival as Greyback. The mare, Brownie, had tints of brown in her off-white overcoat and was really a very pretty snowy in Taiv’s opinion, with a well shaped head and an almost dished face. She also had a bit of a temper. Although Brownie was relatively short for a snowy, that still made her plenty big compared to people, so that temper was something to beware of. She seemed almost to have mellowed a bit with the coming of her little daughter. Taiv always thought of Brownie’s little foal as Fleet, because the little one had all the makings of a particularly well-muscled and swift-running snowy. But the woman almost never spoke the name aloud either to the beast or to the other rangers. Fleet was too skinny for a little snowy over halfway through its first summer. The others would think Taiv silly for assigning the foal a name when there was a good chance the little one wouldn’t make it through the fall.
On the other side of Bowback and Greyback, standing side by side, but nose to tail so that they could swish flies from each-other’s necks with their tails as they grazed, was another pair of mares, one who had already lost her foal early in the spring and the other who had almost carried her foal to viable term, but not quite. Charcoal, who had given birth to a little female foal who never nursed, was very dark, and Swift, who had lost her stillborn mostly-formed foal, was a medium grey, close in color to Greyback. Even before they both lost their years’ offspring, Charcoal and Swift could often be found in each other’s company. The two mares might grouse at their other herd-mates but they seemed comfortable to occupy adjacent berths in the herd’s pecking order and often snoozed with their noses almost touching.
On the other side of the meadow, Serac, the bright and light colored stallion that Taiv had ridden up to the meadow lifted his head and snorted at another quiet roll of thunder. Serac was a bit more closely hobbled than the four mares, because he had an almost unhealthy curiosity and tendency to want to explore new places. Despite that tendency, he was a relatively steady mount once an experienced rider was up on his back. His snort helped break Taiv from her reverie, and with it she hopped off the large flat rock where she had been shelling a small catch of summer peas that she had found at the meadow’s edge, while soaking in the wonderful sun.
Taiv made her way across the meadow to start to gather the little herd. Before she started across the meadow, she stooped to grab her pouch of peas, which she would tie behind her saddle next to the big sealskin pouches of milk from the snowies’ mid-day milkings.
The big seal-leather pouches of milk were the most inconvenient part of her summer days up in the meadows with the snowies. To milk the snowies up here in the fields, the bags first had to be suspended under the mares with long leather straps. Then the milking was done (ideally with the snowy mare in question calmly grazing throughout the procedure) and the heavy bag was lashed shut and pulled free from beneath the mare. Then the bags were lashed behind the saddle, one on each side, of whichever snowy Taiv was riding that day. Because the snowies without offspring were being milked twice a day, the bags were a manageable weight for her to lift alone, but they were still heavy and awkward. Taiv had had Serac kneel in order to lash the two bags from Charcoal and Swift behind his saddle.
It would be easy enough to strap the little bag of peas onto the saddle with the two big milk-skins, and then Taiv would need to remove the hobbles from Bowback, Brownie, Swift, and Charcoal for the trip back down to camp.
As she crossed the meadow, the first of the wind from the oncoming storm began to touch just the tops of the spruce trees surrounding the meadow. She knew that the clouds building at the crest of the mountains would soon obscure the sun, and was glad she had kept her coat unpacked and loosely lashed behind Serac’s saddle, where it would be close at hand. She made quick work of releasing the hobbles from the snowies’ legs with stallion in tow behind her. Then she used the same rock she had been sitting on clamber up to his saddle. He was good about kneeling and offering his foreleg up to allow a rider to mount, but she enjoyed mounting directly to his back when she could, even if it meant she had to scramble on top of something else first.
Taiv settled into the saddle, which she had left lashed to Serac’s back while he grazed, and whistled to the mares as she and Serac started to lead them downhill. The train of snowies was back into a protective stand of spruce and almost a third of the way down to the encampment before the first flakes of snow from the summer storm dusted them. View/Add/Edit CommentsSee also:
Snow-unicorns
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