Shiver

He smiled slightly at her words. Clearly she was questioning her decision to leave her natal herd with her friend. She was still highly anxious—he could practically feel her anxiety from where he stood, and that was a good forty or more feet.

He did his best to impart serenity to her, letting his weight shift and head lower, a hind hoof cocking, visibly relaxed. She spoke so certainly when she noted that she couldn’t have defended herself against even a rabbit, and his horned head tilted slightly with some curiosity, a half chuckle whispering through his nostrils, rippling them as he remembered a moment as a foal, racing his twin sister in circles, until a hare had been shocked out of the brush in front of them, sending both younglings scrambling and bucking back to Obsidian’s warm sides.

“Those rabbits can be frightful when you’re not expecting them.”

His large eyes twinkled like warm blue pools, reminiscent amusement evident in the wrinkling around them. As she startled at a distant caterwaul of a mountain cat, he lifted his head a fraction, listening, before dragging in a deep, lung-filling breath and letting it out in a long sigh.

“You are welcome to stand by me and use my steadiness to steady yourself, Acacia. It’s up to you, and I won’t harm you. Perhaps your Canyon will return soon.”

He’d be able to gently coax her nerves down and give that hammering heart a rest. She might even be able to lay down fully and grab her own deep sleep, which would do a wonder for her shot nerves. He didn’t know if she’d had a chance to relax that far. It was his nature to take care of his fellow horses and keep watch while they did what they needed to do in order to care for themselves.

To emphasize the calm, he let his head drop, teeth cropping lazily at the grass.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think