that it was a downhill journey he thought that the mares could live without sleep for one night. The hardest part had been the pass - the snow was like swimming against a river's flow. But his mother had picked up some tracks from the duo, and he was determined to catch up to them while he could. There was no doubt that Jade would be going at a slow pace and sleeping through the night.

It was nearly dawn when the horses reached the clearing in the trees. Spirit's hopes were lifted suddenly when two ditches in the snow became faintly visable. The overnight snow had nearly filled them up, but they had been here. he sniffed about for their direction.

"That's odd," he said to Esperanza, "there are no tracks heading downhill, just a few scattered about."

"They couldn't have gone far, they were here late last night."

"Over here!" one of the mares shouted, pointing towards a path of holes in the snow. Tracks.

Spirit was puzzled. "This makes no sense, it's them, I can smell it, but why would the suddenly veer from their path? They couldn't have been chased, there's be extra prints."

Rain had joined him and was following the tracks into the distance. She broke into a frantic canter before anyone could stop her. The ground was frozen over now and she could tack longer and faster strides. It took a moment for Spirit to start chasing after her.

"Stay here!" he shouted to the other horses as he followed the pinto across the mountain side.

Durango's ears twitched and spun to the direction that the hoofbeats were coming from. He turned his head to see Rain skidding to a halt in the snow, Spirit joining her side. Jade turned too and was stunned to see her parents. Spirit walked over to nuzzle her and Rain followed.

Jade smiled. "Meet your grandson," she said, moving away from Durango to reveal a sorrel tiny chestnut colt with the brightest green eyes. Durango stood up proudly and moved away to let the foal stand up. He fell a few times, but managed to push himself out of the snow and prance around his mother.

"We were thinking of calling him Spuro," Jade smiled tugging at her new son's mane.

The colt wandered over to Spirit and reared up against him. "He's a lively little fellow," he laughed as he fell back inot the snow.

"Oh, Jade," Rain said, "you're making me feel so old!"

Over the course of the day Rain, Jade and little Spuro wandered back to the awaiting herd in the forest. Spirit and Durango cantered ahead to bring the news. Spirit felt that it was a good time to have a heart to heart with the quarter horse. "At first I had my doubts about you I'll admit, but that's just a father's nature, and I'm sure you'll experience it yourself soon," he said, "but when Jade was left with you I knew that you'd take care of her. You've made me proud to have you in my herd."

Durango smiled, but didn't answer. Guilt was tugging at him. Ever since he had first seen the buckskin at the army base he had resented him, and here he was, letting him stay in the herd and complementing him. But the guilt couldn't remove the slight hatered that burnt inside of him.

When Spuro and his mother made it back all the mares were eager to play with the newborn. Jade stayed close by while he sniffed and toyed with the herd members. Many of them were too old to trot about with him or roll, but a few of the younger ones joined in his games.

Jade was watching him muck about with the yearlings when she asked her father, "So when are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning," he replied, "I want to get everybody fed up and give the younster a good sleep before we set off again. But we have to admit, Jade, that he'll slow us down."

"So? The rush was to get to the meadows before he was born, and since we've missed that deadline we can go at our own pace from now on," she argued.

"Do you want to trail at the back with him?"

"No," she said sternly, "I was at the back when we got separated by the humans, I'm staying in the middle of the pack to give him as much safety as possible."

Spirit chuckled. "You're already acting like a proper dam. Go and find some food, I'll watch him for you."

Over the week the barren landscape of the mountains morphed into trees and grass. Streams appeared through the forest from the melted snow and flowers bloomed in clusters. For the first time in what seemed like forever the herd felt at home. They were familiar with seeing lots of foliage, and familiar with eating it too. Soon the horses were putting their weight back on, and Spuro was growing quicker now that his mother was eating properly. The foal had to experience his first winter in the beginning of his life, so the long grass and shady trees were completely alien to him. At his age he couldn't possibly understand that there had only been snow because of the mountain, and that it was really summer in his home.

In the morning one day Spirit felt that that earth was different under his feet. It was flat, with no slope. Ahead of them stretched miles and miles of wilderness that they could claim as their own. The rest of the mustangs stopped behind him and sensed the same thing. That suddenly their journey, which they had started unexpectantly in a blind panic, was over, and they were all together.

A few of the mares broke off into a gallop, nieghing loudly, rearing and bucking, acting like fillies. Esperanza watched with an old smile. Her herd - her family - was safe. She lay down in the grass and watched the sun rise further through the sky as the other horses jumped about. She was too old for all that lark, but she could still watch and remember.

"The hard part now is setting up a proper home," Spirit said, standing over her. "There could be other horses here, new predators, even another man town. I'm going to keep us all here until we can find a safe enough territory."

"Ow, Ow! Teeth, Spuro! I won't tell you again," Jade said as the colt suckled. Her mother was right - parenting was the hardest job a mare could have.

"Play with me, mum!" he shrieked. Jade laughed and chased after him, surprised at how speedy he'd become over the last few weeks. She stopped when she saw Durango approaching. He'd been gone a few days after insisting to her father that he should scout the land out.

"Well, we're clear for a good few miles out over the planes, not a single trace of another horse, never mind another herd. As for predators, well we should expect cougars but few and far between. But the best part is this: no man. And it's going to take them years to overpopulate their settlement, and then they would have to make it over the range," he explained. He tugged at his son's mane as a greeting.

"You'd be surprised, Durango," she said, "my father says that humans are capable of anything they want to do."

"But we've still got decades alone," he said, looking up.

"Good," she smiled, "because I have to tell you something."

"Yes?"

"I'm pregnant."

(C) gemmawolf 2010