"But why, momma?" The colt's voice came, full of confusion and a tinge of fear, "Why would someone do that?" The sight laid out before them was an awful one; an elder mare that had been in the herd for longer than anyone to count, was stretched out on the mossy ground in front of them, her greyed sides unmoving no matter how hard Xanthos tried to imagine otherwise.

The dun standing at his side let out a breath, and dropping her head, she gently pulled her child closer. She had not wished for the youngster to ever stumble across something like this, but then, Xanthos had always been notorious for wandering when he shouldn't. A dangerous thing in Melhaven, but luckily, the colt would learn quick before it was too late. "It is the way of life, my son," her soothing voice came, doing wonders to assure the little colt as he continued to watch the still form. "She was old, and if the leopards do not get us first, it will happen to us all."

With a horrified look, Xanthos looked up to his mother and stamped a hoof, almost without realizing it. "That isn't fair," the grullo huffed, remaining ignorant to this sad fact of life his mother was trying to explain, "She was nice, and I..." But he trailed off then, unsure of what to say, and it made him twitch his still short tail in annoyance. The grey mare had indeed been kind, and it was a wonder she had made it this long with her declining health, but this did nothing to douse the colt's anger.

"That may be so," the yellowed mare continued, pressing her muzzle into her son's shoulder to further comfort him, "But it is a fact of life. Life is short, and you must always remember to treat those you meet with dignity and respect. What if you had never met dear Isis, or treated her as I taught you?" With this, her eyes flashed briefly to the still form of the grey before returning to her son, "And the last thing you said to her was something nasty and mean. You should never hate, or fight without reason, Xanthos."

At this, the colt had quieted, allowing the words to soak into his young mind. Doing anything mean was not in his nature, nor would it ever be. The mere thought didn't settle well with the little grullo, and even if his mother's words didnt' make much sense now, they would in later years.

Especially right now, Xanthos could hear his mother's words echoing loud and clear in his ears. He did not know Tor, but he had jumped blindly into a fight against her, hardly even questioning himself on the acts he was committing. 'Forgive me, mother,' he said in his head, and in that instant, his mind faded back into reality.

It was the scraping of teeth on his rump that had pulled him from his thoughts, everything returning to the fast pace of battle. He let loose a squeal as the hair was pulled away, exposing a bare spot of black skin, and took a leap forward. It stung him worse than any bee, but given the thick muscles packed into his hindquarters, it would hardly put a stop to his attacks. He was on all fours now, having recovered from the kick, and his attention was pinned to Tor as she came around to his side.

Digging cloven hooves into the cold ground, he strode once or twice forward until the draft lashed out for his shoulder. When her head had twisted in his direction, the grullo propelled his body to the side in her direction, hoping to slam into her and throw her off balance. His neck screamed in pain when it came crashing into the mare with the rest of him, if he was even successful in his attempts, and had him scrambling to regain his own balance once there was a gap between them. Her teeth had made contact with the thin skin of his neck, however, gnashing and pulling a bit away to expose tender flesh. Being a thicker, taller build than himself, it was unlikely that the mare would fall, but hopefully it would do something.

Even as he fought on, Xanthos found himself wondering what he would do if he did indeed win; would he even be happy he had won? No, for it meant he would have bloodied some mare whose very name was a mystery to him. But that didn't mean he wished to lose. The rest of the Aurorans would look on at him with shame in there eyes, and he would be even more worthelss than he was already.

WC - 800
Injury - Is bitten in the rump and neck.
Attack - Slams into the side of Tor to try and knock her over/make her lose her balance.
OOC - 3/4.

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I can see you're losing it