Temperamental

Chapter 3

Despite his boredom, Roan did not leave the herd. In fact he stuck closer to the herd. His days were filled with grazing, sleeping and occasionally running freely through the forests. He found it hard not to disassociate with his previous identity as a human. Along with this came a deeper understanding of horses.

In his previous life, it had been his mother's secret obsession to look after and raise horses. Roan has always been introverted and had often claimed an "allergy" to the sun when his mother invited him horse riding. All the facts his mother had shared had gone in one ear and out the other. Even after becoming a horse, he would not be able to share how horses should be cared for.

Instead he understood the freedom of galloping that his mother had always claimed as a liberating experience. He learnt about the beauty of the world through blue tinted eyes. And he had discovered the tenacious will that was inherited by each successive generation of horse.

He had lived more in a year as a horse then in the previous twenty-two as a human. He didn't know dates or times, only seasons, however once mid autumn arrived and they began their migration, subtle changes began to occur. At first it was unnoticeable. A small, yet persistent itch on his forehead. As they were racing over plains, Roan had no way to satisfy the itching. If there were trees he would have been able to rub against them to relieve the itch, yet there was only endless grass.

The itch steadily grew worse until Roan could only roll on the ground in torment. By the time they reached the winter grazing grounds, he had suffered through the unsatisfiable itch for two months. The instant Roan saw the trees he made a maddened gallop towards them. As he rubbed his head up and down on the rough bark, he let out soft nickers of satisfaction. He didn't notice the groove left on the tree from the rubbing.

Due to his excitement, Roan also hadn't noticed just how fast he had galloped. Originally he had kept pace with his herd, diligently looking after the foals by nudging them ahead when they grew tired. After his dash to freedom, had had overtaken his herd by tens of paces. He had been scratching the itch for several moments by the time the rest of the herd caught up.

These small details that went unnoticed by Roan were easily picked up by the black stallion. The stallion eyeballed him unhappily and snorted in disdain. The stallion approached Roan and nudged him to move. As Roan moved, the stallion kept herding him this way and that. This instinctively irritated Roan and he neighed and bared his teeth. He had long grown his baby teeth and lost his deciduous incisors. The stallion retaliated by biting at Roan's neck.

It was only then that Roan realized the stallion felt threatened by his presence. Roan obediently let the dominant male push him around until satisfied. Roan didn't want to fight the stallion just yet.

After being pushed around by the dominant male that felt threatened, the black stallion returned to grazing. Roan didn't immediately return to the herd. Instead he found the small stream they used last year as a water source and rolled in the water to clean off the dust from traveling. Being dirty and unable to properly bathe was one of Roan's biggest complaints of this life. Roan didn't notice the pure sparkle left in the water after he finished rolling in it. Nor did he notice that his newly cleaned hooves weren't the standard grey they had always been.

Indeed, the changes that had occurred to Roan had been gradual, even the itching that had been from the growth of a horn.

Roan only realized these changes after a month at the winter grazing grounds. It had happened purely by chance. Roan had separated from his herd in order to explore deeper into the forest. The other horses had never ventured too far from the herd and had only stayed at the border of the forest. His first visit he had been newly born and although he was still considered a foal, he was bigger and stronger then most of the colts that the stallion chased away. He had studied how the stallion fought, and even fought off predators before. He had believed himself strong enough to venture deeper into the forest.