incomingchoppers | IC INBOX

Her shirt yields no apples, nothing suitable for a horse, but she's laughing anyway as he tries. Laughing, and keeping the thought in check, as surely as sitting on it might do.

"I'll make a stop just for their sake."

She likes Ambrose, anyway. What she's spoken to him about in the back, hot mug of tea and honey in her hand, remains quiet. The war's scars still linger, physical and mental, but coming on Degas's recommendation had opened a little door, offered yet another soul to talk to. And the results of his craft were superb.

"Here, give me that quick, before he starts eating you in protest-"

She has to save Radar from a stallion who thinks he's being held out on.

Radar's free hand scrambles through his pockets. Laughing harder as he tries to scold the horse, he tries, "Danforth, no, you gotta wait a second, that tickles -- "

Danforth blows another raspberry, unmoved by Radar's protests. Apples should never be subject to the whims of mere men! How dare you imply otherwise, good sir!!

"Here," and finally digging out the remaining three-fourths of the apple, he quickly passes it over to Fever.

The shhhk of Danforth's teeth crunching the apple heralds Radar's freedom, and Fever feels fine to reach out and stroke his mane again.

"What does he do around here? Aside from be a handsome beast?"

"Oh, he hauls stuff and he's good for riding." Gently, Radar rubs Danforth's velvety nose, then grins. "But being a handsome beast really is part of his job, too, on account of him bein' a stud horse. In fact he's already gonna be a dad next summer, aren't you, boy?"

Danforth, too busy finishing up his prize apple, does not deign to comment.

"...there's going to be a baby?"

Her mind can only picture Danforth but about a fifth of his actual size.

"Yeah." His smile grows. "Helga got pregnant a couple months ago, so the foal's gonna look a little like her too, but yeah -- they come out about this big," he gestures, right about at that one-fifth mark next to Danforth, "all ready to run and everything."

There's a question that comes to Fever's mind. Probably something Radar can hear easily, so simple and direct as it is, though she has to gear herself up to say it. But she will, almost shy about it.

"...when the baby is born, can I come see it?"

Just born, and ready to run. What a wonder.

Overhearing what she's gonna say, Radar starts, just before she does: "Yeah, of course you can come see it soon as it's born, I'll call you first thing. Helga'll probably be fussing for a while but it'll help if it meets a whole lotta new people early on. That way it's more used to 'em later."

When she's told, she'll find a way to make time. The idea fills her with the same wonder as knowing a chrysalis would hatch into a butterfly. She still would need to be so cautious - but looking would do no harm. New life.

"I'll bring something for her too, since she'll doubtlessly be exhausted after all her hard work. In your hands, she needn't fuss too much."

Her wonder washes over Radar like sunlight emerging from behind a cloud. It makes him grin all over again, delight shared at the prospect of more life coming into the world. Just like when the 4077th helped one of the local women through a birth and the baby crying was the sweetest sound Radar thought he'd ever heard.

"I hope so," he says. "She likes me well enough already that I don't think she'll mind me being around. And as soon as you give her a couple carrots and scratch that itchy spot she can never get on her neck, she'll love you too."

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