Username: Dark.
Name: Tarka
Gender: Mare
Height: 13.1 hh
Age: 4
Art/story: A snapshot of her personality;; featuring her unlikely best friend,
Darcy.
***
The target hung firmly from the branch, a slight breeze sending a shiver through the surrounding foliage. The large red orb was so close she could almost taste it...and it tasted sweet and fruity.
"
Tee...Tee. Tarka." A sharp voice broke the mare's reverie. Turning her head, she narrowed her eyes; setting her sights firmly on the one who had wrenched her from her daydream. Darcy smirked, a very dogmatic look in his eyes. "
You're never going to reach the apple you know."
Tarka glanced back at her elusive prize, a look of steely determination glinting across her features, "
I'll remind you of that when I'm picking apple peel from my teeth!"
"
Tarka; ever the eternal optimist."
The mare cast her friend a toothy grin, "
I try."
Once again setting her gaze on the apple, the mare narrowed her eyes scrutinisingly. The tree overhung a mudbank, spindling branches reaching out over the clear lake. It was days like this she wished she was a squirrel. An adorable tree-rat with a bushy tail that could simply pluck the apple from the branch. Tarka was distracted. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted a young otter, playing on a nearby mudbank. It slipped and slid down its mudslide; twisting and chirping in glee.
That gave her an idea. Taking a few calculated steps back, Tarka grinned, before springing forward into a gallop. Three strides. Rock back. Leap. She was flying, the land disappearing from beneath her hooves. The mare could almost sense Darcy shaking his head in dismay - that thought brought a sheepish grin to her face. Opening her mouth and hoping for the best, she closed her jaws around the crunchy apple and let gravity do her thing.
Tarka landed, bottom first on the mudbank, legs and mane splaying wildly as she slid down the slope - gathering speed. Darcy watched from the safety of the grass, mouth agape. You'd think he would be used to her antics by now; but Tarka never ceased to amaze. Water sprayed everywhere as the mare hit the surface of the lake. For a moment, only bubbles broke the surface. Darcy narrowed his eyes.
The apple surfaced first, ensnared between a pair of grinning lips. Tarka snorted away the water from her nostrils, chomping the apple with one clean, satisfying bite. Cooly, Darcy regarded her, swishing his tail, "
Pleased with yourself?"
The mare grinned, coat wet, and plastered with a coating of wet mud, "
Very." She snickered triumphantly, before reaching her tail out of the water and batting it across the surface - soaking her uptight friend.
• Fearless • Nature-lover • Shameless Tomboy •