Raven contemplated what to say to the stallion. He wouldn't care much about her name. She was surprised he had told her a bit more about himself, although she had already known he was a lone stallion, it was pretty obvious.

"I'm Raven," she replied, not giving any more context to what she was doing as a mare, by herself with no herd. There weren't many outcast mares, and even when there was, they generally found a lone stallion and settled down to form their own herd. What she was really wondering was how he knew about her secret spot, though she guessed he had just stumbled upon it, he would have had to make it through the woods first. Every herd in the area had to have warned him about the woods, how she lurked there. Although she didn't really lurk, just lived.

"Well pleasure to meet you Raven," Dusty said and dipped his head some in respect for the mare, "I would imagine that you are the horse that I have heard tales of from the surrounding herds. 'The shadow that lurks in the woods' is what they say about you, right?" His body was not very tense but was ready in case the mare tried to pull a surprise attack. Despite his friendly nature he knew that sometimes you can't be friends with everyone. Dusty had learned this the hard way with a few rogue stallions who were more interested in fighting than in talking. He tried to read the mare's face to figure out if she was interested in talking or in chasing him out of her forest. A small breeze blew through the meadow and made Dusty's mane and tail flow some while his eyes remained on the black mare in front of him. His eyes landed on her's and he admired her icy blue eyes, which stood out from her dark pelt.

When Dusty said 'the shadow that lurks in the woods' she sighed. "Yeah, that seems to be what everyone calls me," she responded. This was getting honestly quite awkward. She didn't feel like telling her whole life story to anyone right now. She really could only do some much getting to know someone in a day, she hadn't actually had a real conversation, like, ever. She took one last look at Dusty's handsome coat, in her opinion, much more handsome than that if the bay stallion she saw that morning, and then disappeared into the woods quietly.

He waited for the mare to talk some more and was surprised as she disappeared into the woods. That's weird, he thought, she didn't attack me or chase me away. Plus I thought she was liking talking to me. Dusty took a step forward before stopping himself. Was it really a good idea to follow Raven? From what he had heard she wasn't the most friendly when bothered too much. But he wanted to know more about this mysterious mare and why she acted as she did. He shook his head, his mane moving with his neck, and got rid of the thought. Just leave her alone, he thinks, she left most likely because I was bothering her, so I shouldn't bother her anymore.

Raven felt a pang of regret as she strode through the woods. That was certainly a new feeling. Usually she didn't care much about any interaction with other horses. But he was different and you just walked away, she told herself. What if she never saw him again, he had been so kind compared to other horses. Why had she walked away? Mabaye because you had no idea what to say and you felt vaunerable? Raven liked having control, and that conversation was out of the ordinary and very uncontrollable.

Dusty let out a small sigh and trotted over to the pond nearby from the meadow. He lowered his muzzle to the water and drank a few gulps of water. After he had enough to drink he stepped into the water and laid down in it before rolling a few time in the cool water, cooling himself down from the hot sun. Once he was cooled down enough, Dusty stood and walked out of the pond and shook his pelt free from the water. He then returned to the meadow and went back to grazing. In the back of his mind he wondered where the mare, or should he say Raven, had gone off to. Why do I care, he asked himself, I've only met her once and she could just come back and attack me.

Raven trotted through the forest thinking about the stallion. Was he lonely too? She wondered. She quickly erased that thought from her mind. She wasn't lonely, she was strong and independent, right? But what if she had grown up in a herd, would she have friends? Would she talk to other horses? She didn't know. The sun began to set as Raven came to her favorite spot in the woods, the pines. The pine needles provided a soft forest floor and the trees were beautiful and mysterious at night. Her shadowy coat blended in perfectly here.

Dusty ate his fill of grass and looked up at the darkening sky. He walked over to a more covered spot in the meadow and stomped his hooves down on the floor there. Once it was flatened enough to be a nice bed Dusty laid down on it. He gazed up at the sky as teh stars began to appear. Raven is probably looking at the sky too, he thought suddenly before shaking the thought away once more. He didn't need to worry about that mare so much. She can obviously live on her own, he thought, she is fine by herself.

Raven found a spot in between the pine trees where the moon could shine down on her coat. She settle down in the soft needles and gazed up at the sky wondering where Dusty was right now. Is he looking up at the stars too? She wondered. Is he thinking about me? she tossed her mane and lay her head on the ground. Why did she even care where he was? Why couldn't she just stop thinking about him for two minutes. Because he's different, a small voice whispered inside her head. She closed he blue eyes, relaxing, trying to fall asleep, but she heard a crunch of something in the pine needles. Nothing could ever sneak up on her, she was always alert. Her head shot up and she pinpointed the noise to be coming from a couple pine trees away. She narrowed her eyes and stared at the spot. Finally she saw two amber eyes peering out at her. She jumped to her feet. She knew this animal, and it was dangerous. She decided not to wait and let it attack, she barred her teeth and charged at the cougar. It obviously wasn't one of the cowardly ones because it kept right at her face. She quickly dodged to the side, letting the cougar fly past her. Then she pivoted around ready to attack, but the cougar had somehow already regained it's balance and it kept at her again, this time right onto her back, digging it's claws into her pelt to keep it's grip. It buried it's teeth in her mane. She could feel pinpricks of blood forming around the cougars claws and pain spiked through her back, but she wouldn't give in. She teared up on her hin legs and let herself fall backwards, crushing the big cat beneath her. The cat wimpered as she heard a cracking noise, it's claws loosened but as she tried to get up they dragged against her back, leaving long scratches. She snorted, she couldn't believe how persistent this one was, normally just her charging at them would scare them off. Today was obviously not a normal day. The cougar was hurt now, it got to it's feet, took one glance at her and limped away. "Thank the stars," she murdered. It was then when she realized her back was burning with pain. She hadn't been hurt by anything in quite awhile. She liked thinking of herself as undeafeated. Which, in all reality, that was a true statement. She couldn't think of a horse or predator that she hadn't managed to ward off. She sighed, she needed to find some water to wash the blood off her wounds. The only place she could think of that wasn't in a herds territory though was the pond in the meadow. Half of her hoped the stallion had gone elsewhere already, the other half prayed he was still there.

(Oops, this got really long somehow, lol)

(Lol it's fine. Gives me a lot to work with)

After a while of star gazing, Dusty let his head fall to the ground. Slowly he closed his eyes and his ears relaxed some, but stayed lifted enough to hear if anyone or anything was approaching. In the distance he heard the scream of a mountain lion, or cougar as other horses called them, and snorted some. His tail flicked to his side and swatted at any bugs that tried to stay on him. Something inside of him told him that something was wrong, but he pushed the feeling away. His ears stayed more alert now as he was anxious of something happening. This was common for Dusty, seeing that he was once ambushed by another stallion, but he knew it would pass after a while. Still something told him that someone or something was either unwell or not right and it had nothing to do with him. Being unable to sleep peacefully Dusty stood with a sigh and got to his hooves. He walked across the moonlit meadow and towards the pond. Maybe I just need a fresh drink of water, he thought with a snort, hopefully then I can go to sleep.