It was a foggy and rainy day of May, and the sun seeped through the wax coated leaves of the trees in the swamp area every now and then, most likely in fifteen minute intervals. A stallion, Blackwater, on the other hand, had had his head down in the darkness at all times, until now. He had seen bubbles underwater, in a lake shore nearby, rising from murky, unclear and almost completely surfaced by green, (to Blackwater,) beautifully dark and glossy, kelp. Earlier he had thought the bubbles had come from the very bottom of the lake as it usually was, even if considered the time of the year. But the bubbles that had seemed to intrigue him in a rather positive way, and the stallion guessed for good that there might be probably the first foal of the month lurking somewhere behind the shore.

Blackwater neared the water, moving forward with soft, steady steps; but however, his gills quivering rather nervously, the reason being nearer every moment; pressing down the cold and gray toned grass which was eager to crack in half in this spring morning that had frosted all the vegetation along with itself: even the sun had looked kind of blue that day.

More bubbles arised. Blackwater shook his head in anticipation and slowed down to stand idly just a foot before he would be able to enter the water with a short pace. A swarm of mosquitoes had surrounded his knees, found the subtle warmth of a living (or not so living) body, flown from the freezing lake, just about right before a foal’s face drastically broke between those kelps like messy tufts of hair dyed green with the most smelliest dye there could possibly be.

The eyes were what Blackwater, surprised but glad, saw in the animal first. They were cyan and shiny, like headlights of a car, and they were nothing but calm, but rather sparked with energy. As the foal, unidentified and new, struggled to get up, Blackwater watched and saw the foal just could not get out of the shore, yet he waited.

After time, as he saw, the foal, feeble, angry, subtle but indeed pretty, was caught in one of those long black swirls on the surface of the lake.

Blackwater stood and waited, waited for the foal to manage on his own, eventually seeing it almost get strangled by the kelp, fall underneath in tire but get up many times, each try after another being weaker, before Blackwater closed his mesmerizingly light eyes, let out a disappointed sight, thinking the foal would just die off caught in there eventually as it would on land if Blackwater were to have helped it. Although he had a bit of a Capaill Uisce’s heart and had gained interest in the way the foal seemed to be like at first sight, he favoured natural selection and let mother nature finish something it had started at an early point. Then he turned on his feet, gazed upon the runt but persistent foal, and left the situation on its own.

Thirteen feet away from the point of early excitement and latter disappointment, a faint slosh was heard. A foal similar to the one in water had stranded on land, not breathing for a second and trying to continue using it’s gills, and laying immobile for a moment, to get up sooner than how long it took Blackwater to turn around in his disappointment.

Cooled down, tired, maybe hungry but definitely not scared, the foal shuddered to stay up. It, all tired, waved its head up front, coughing kelp, dark sand and brownish water, and shone her (“It’s a she!” Blackwater thought, suprised, minding it’s persistence, although keeping in mind it’s sheer luck and score in first appearance and outbreak from the shore) eyes up to distance, obviously getting used to a worse ability to see than what she had had in water.

Blackwater neared it with steps more secure than how he had earlier, his head turning, uncertain, judging.

“Stay where you are, filly.” Blackwater sizzled from the depths of his throat with his lungs full of air not intended to scaring the foal away but to proving to it that he was someone worthy of respect and notice.

The foal’s terrible eyes flashed, for a long time, onto the light pupils of the tall stallion standing in front of him.