Chapter 9
Jealousy
A very amused and entertained expression never left my countenance, as I showed my world to the mesmerized mustang stallion. The way his eyes and nostrils would dilate upon encountering things unknown to him, made me slightly chuckle to myself. The Lakota camp, like always, was bustling with activity. The liveliness of the busy Summer's day at the village was nothing unusual for me. But for the stallion tied to the same rope as me, it was the strangest and possibly the most fascinating sight he'd ever seen. I led the way and he followed without a single protest, his fiery eyes shifting from one thing to another, from one person to another. The children raced out playfully chasing after their dogs, and nearly ran into the distracted wild mustang. The stallion stopped in time, almost stumbling. I tried hard to retain my low laugh and shook my head. The stunned stallion continued staring after the cheerful children, who kept shouting and yelling in excitement. The women of the village watched over them while cooking and doing some other household chores, and the dun mustang observed this with a curious gaze.
Right across from us, the men were taking care of their horses and also some of them kept making war weapons. The stallion quietly trailed after me, never letting any of the details escape his absorbing eyes. He lifted his head and nickered upon seeing Great Conquest, Dawn, Blaze, and Wind. Singing Eagle came up and painted a blue circle around Wind's eye and the stallion nickered at us and dipped his head, showing obedience and his easy-going personality. The dun mustang watched this action with a surprised and kind of disgusted expression. He shook his head with a slight snort, not knowing what to make out of the strangeness around him. By far, in his opinion, we were the most surprising horses. And in some ways, I understood where he was coming from. After all, he was a wild mustang...and our interaction with the humans was unnatural and unheard of for him.
His eyes were still fixed on the horses in front of us who were being painted by their owners. Great Conquest whinned at me in a greeting, and I returned it with a smile dancing on my muzzle. However, just for a slight moment, I detected the cold glare that the grey stallion shot at the dun mustang. He only looked that way at his rivals. Great Conquest was usually the strongest and the highest standing stallion in our tribe. And he did not take kindly to newcomers who ignored his authority and dominance. Especially if these 'newcomers' happened to be stallions. The cold glare didn't seem to pass unnoticed by the dun mustang. Proud as he was, he too shot him an exact same look. Nervousness crept over me as I suddenly began to fear that the fight would break out. Which was very unlikely, considering the circumstances. I immediately turned away, and automatically the mustang followed me realizing that I was still the decision-maker. We continued to wonder around in the village for a little longer. The stallion's observing gaze always finding something new to inspect and study. At the moment his attention was caught by the clothing materials of Lakota people. He carefully smelled the buffalo skins hanging on a wooden stand and looked up at me confused.
"What a familiar scent." He nickered surprised. "It smells just like the buffalo of my homeland."
"That's because it is buffalo." I responded somewhat lowly, avoiding eye contact.
The stallion stared up at me in shock, he let out a loud groan of hurt and resentment. Huffing in irritation, he silenced for a while and afterwards spoke up. "That's the two-leggeds for you." His remark was bitter and full of hatred.
My blue gaze turned back to him and I nickered softly. "In the Winter these skins warm the humans and their meat sustains them. Without it, they'll die of cold and hunger." I began to explain, hoping to come off nice and not get too offended at the stallion.
The dun mustang slightly rolled his eyes. "I get it. They're predators." He said mechanically and turned his head away, showing that he was ready to walk on.
I sighed and moved forward, my tail held high. The stallion continued to study his new surroundings half intrigued and half annoyed at the things he'd witness. I kept a watchful eye on him, pretending to show no interest in him. In fact, throughout I tried hard to appear indifferent even though I badly wanted to find out more about him and his business with my owner.
As the sun began to sink back to the earth, the mustang and I walked back to the round pen where Little Creek was waiting. He approached me with a bright grin and gently petted and caressed my neck, praising me in pride. The stallion moved a bit further away cautiously, naturally weary of the human. Gently and softly, Little Creek led us back into the pen and finally untied the mutual rope from our necks. I felt like a working day was at last over and gladly trotted out of the round ring. The mustang and Little Creek both remained there. My owner stayed behind, calmly observing the wild stallion, who appeared to be much milder than earlier. That same pang of jealousy that creeped into me the first time I had seen this stud, drifted back to my mind. I wasn't as jealous as before but I certainly didn't wish to share my owner with the wild mustang. Little Creek was mine...and MINE ONLY. And it wasn't like this stallion also liked him or anything. Nope! He wanted to get away from us. Maybe it would've been better to just let him go. I hoped that Little Creek soon would understand this and release the stallion.
Just as I was about to turn back to my meadows, I noticed those spirited and fiery brown eyes of the stallion focused on me. I could feel the certain warmth in them that altogether excited and surprised me. Suddenly, it hit me like lightning. Jealousy! Could it be?! My mind quickly jolted back to Great Conquest's cold glare the very afternoon. The truth behind that hard and unforgiving stare was clear to me now. He had seen in this dun stallion a rival. He was jealous! And unfortunately, I was the very reason why he was jealous. Swiftly I turned around and loped off in other direction, realizing that my quiet and calm days were about to be over. And yet at the same time, I kept assuring myself that I was being silly. After all, all that wild stallion wanted was to get away from me, my friend and the entire village, and go return back to his homeland.
Unknown to me then however, was that those wildfire eyes had not for an instant left my sight and if I had turned and looked back at them, I would've become convinced of their earnestness and real affection.
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