The colt stayed close to his mothers side and she stayed close to the stallion as he fought the lion and protected them from any further harm, the lion saw the stallion and how small he was compared to the mare which made it more confident in getting a meal so it launched itself at him, the stallion reared then turned and kicked with his back legs, hitting the lion in the chest, though that didn’t stop it, it jumped at him again, the stallion was annoyed with the lion at this point so he reared up, and this time did a powerful kick with his front legs, harshly hitting it again, the lion’s body slamming on the ground, this time when it scrambled to it’s feet it didn’t stay to attack but instead scurried off into the woods as quickly as it could, leaving the three horses alone.

The mare looked back at her colt to make sure he was ok before turning her attention to the stallion, she nuzzled him with her muzzle, making sure he wasn’t hurt. As she did this the young stallion turned back towards her and let out a soft nicker, letting her know he wasn’t injured before nuzzling her back then calling his four other mares, the small herd came down off the hill trotting to him. Once they got to his side they became very welcoming towards the mother and her foal, that’s when the stallion saw that she had a colt with her, he looked at her and asked for permission to see her foal. The mare knew the foal was his but after the way Aqualius and that random stallion had reacted to him she was hesitant.

The stallion could sense this so he lowered his head to show he wasn’t going to hurt her baby, she looked at him for a moment before accepting his request to meet his son, she cautiously moved a little so that he could see the tiny colt better, he looked at her with gentle eyes as she moved, then, the stallion’s gaze moved to the colt, he looked the colt up and down with a smile before slowly approaching him, his movement slow as to not worry the colt or his mother, the foals mother watching the stallion very closely to make sure he wouldn’t lash out at the foal.

Eventually the stallion would reach the foal and gently reach his head out to sniff the colt, he sniffed the little colt while the mare kept a close eye on him, once he was done smelling the small baby he showed kindness to him by nuzzling him and pulling the foal closer to him as a form of hugging before looking at the foals mother and nickering out to her as if to say “You did good” as he led the foal back to her and ran his nose along her back lovingly, after doing that for a minute or two he appointed her as his lead mare and began leading his herd back to his territory.

Life in the young stallion’s herd was looking good, no, great, the foal was now a four month old colt, his mother couldn’t be happier – her foal was thriving, and with each day that went by she grew more fond of the colt’s father. She slowly began to love him, the lead stallion wasn’t a jerk who strictly followed the stallion’s rules, he was only four years of age and thought that the stallion’s rules were stupid and unfair towards mares, even though he disgraced the colt’s mother and got her pregnant, Now she’s more grateful because if the young stallion never came across her in that field a year ago, then she wouldn’t have such a beautiful colt like Rocky.

By this age, the colt was beginning to become more adventurous, and playful too. He’d run laps around the herd, under his mothers supervision of course, and he’d sometimes play with his two-month-old half-sister, Maisy. Maisy was a buckskin-ish palomino-ish pinto like her mom, though Maisy’s mom wasn’t a palomino or buckskin, she was a black and white pinto who went by Julica, Maisy and the colt were half siblings – They share the same father, the lead stallion. Usually when the colt and filly played together it was fun, but after almost a hour of playing the filly would get tired and waddle back to her mother, leaving the colt to either play by himself or go back to his own mother.

One day when the colt’s mother and father were bonding over a small bundle of apples, he went and played with Maisy, eventually after the filly grew tired and trotted back to her mother, Julica, the colt was bored and decided to sneakily leave the safety of the herd and explore the rest of the territory that belonged to his mom and dad all by himself, once he managed to get out unnoticed he quickly cantered into the tree line so that none of the herd members could see him.

Now that he was by himself outside the herd he could explore freely, and so he did, the colt trotted North until he reached a large valley filled with all sorts of flowers: Dandelions, Daisies, Orchids, Petunias and so many others. The foal laughed with joy as he ran through the valley of flowers, once he finished gallivanting he walked back towards the entrance, taking in the sweet scent of all the flowers. When he finally got to the tree line he started heading West where after a small gallop he’d reach a cave, he stood at the opening to this ‘small on the outside, big on the inside’ looking cave and tried to peek in but it was too dark to see anything in the cave. The colt turned quick smart and hightailed it out and away from the cave as fast as his legs could carry him when he heard scary noises coming from deep inside the cave. Now he was galloping yet again, his tiny legs moving faster than ever before, this time going East.

He galloped for quite some time, passing the valley of flowers in which he had frolicked in earlier, he seemed to be going for quite some time and was getting tired from travelling as fast as he did so he slowed right down to a walk, huffing and puffing to try and get his breath back, he was beginning to grow hungrier with every minute he travelled, and thirsty too, but he wasn’t done exploring just yet. The colt felt happy when he could hear a trickling sound, he moved into a fast trot trying to find where the noises were coming from, his tiny ears flickering about trying to pinpoint where the source of the trickling water was hiding, he broke into a canter when he finally figured out where the water was, the foal followed the noises through some trees and a few bushes until he came across a creek with a miniature waterfall up the other end of it, he went straight to the edge of the water and lowered his head, taking a nice, long, well deserved drink.

That was when he heard it, splashing. But, he was alone, right? Alarmed, the colt raised his head, and to his surprise: He saw something he didn’t expect to see. Another foal, a filly, the colt had never seen her before so she definitely wasn’t from the herd, she was about the same age as Rocky, four months, she was a palomino – but her coat shone a beautiful golden colour when the sun hit it through the trees, and to finish off she had a perfectly round star on her face. The little palomino filly looked rather skinny, her tiny ribs were sticking out, it was visibly clear that she hadn’t been getting enough milk if any at all.