DAY THREE
Username: OutdatedBoombox
Writing: They'd never seen something like it. The sabino foal stepped forward towards the small, strange creature hiding in the rocks. Their bright green eyes sparkled with curiosity and they made a gentle attempt to smell whatever the heck the critter is. The small amphibian croaked, resulting in the foal hopping back with alarm, ears twitching. After a few moments of recuperation, they stepped forward again. This time, much to their alarm, the frog leapt up and landed smack between their eyes. They squealed with shock, skittering violently backwards and lightly shaking their head to try and dislodge the frog. The frog, however, stayed stuck quite firmly and began to climb around their face.
After a few moments of obvious panic and freaking out, Hina settled. They decided they liked this odd little creature, and found them rather interesting. With that, they laid down in the grass and let the frog climb wherever it pleased, provided they'd get to watch. The foal immensely enjoyed watching the amphibian crawl about on their coat, and stayed watching for as long as they could. Of course, good times must always eventually come to and end, and the frog had to be returned to the rocks around the pond. However, the fascination Hina had didn't end there. Every day, they'd return to the pond to meet up with that same little frog and watch the tadpoles swim around in the shallows. Over the years, they'd watch the tadpoles grow up into froglets and each generation either stay or migrate to different pond in the pasture. They enjoyed their duty, keeping the birds away and even bringing water from the troughs when the summer heat started to make it a little too dry for the critters. They kept the birds away from the tadpoles, with moderate success, and the adult frogs enjoyed the bugs that Hina would attract to the water's edge. The sabino would wade in, with frogs clinging to their sides and head, and just enjoy the cool water with the frogs acting as pest control.
The others never really understood Hina's love of the amphibians and the ponds. The little sabino would spend all day with their wet, croaking little friends instead of with the other horses. Not that Hina disliked the others, they just preferred their frogs. The songs, the soft weight of them crawling around, the way the tadpoles would nibble on their nose... They couldn't help it. They preferred the chirping, croaking company of their frogs. Even though the frogs weren't colorful- just mottled brown- Hina found them beautiful. Sure, a lot of the others found their songs annoying, but Hina didn't care. The others could avoid the ponds. After all, there were troughs with clean water. They didn't mind being ignored, so long as they had their frogs. In winter, it was different. They were only out during the day, and the frogs were gone. Hibernating for the winter. There were no songs, no tadpole nibbles, no climbing friends. Just the snow and the frozen over pond. Hina knew they'd return in spring, but it was still... lonely.
Tolter: Hina