She was called by many names in her long life, Rain, Butter, Rosie… the list goes on but the one she most prefers is Roach. It was what her White-Hair called her in a tender voice so broken for one so young. She was a Gift-Surprise, this she knew and thus it bound her to the sweet White-Hair. Though
Roach may be her name given by a two-legged but her Dam called her She-Who-Will-Always-Wander.
It was a name she cherished above all, one she wished her White-Hair could know but was unable to voice as the two-legged could not speak with those like her.
But this didn't mean she didn't love her White-Hair any less and did not communicate back to his sweet words the best she could. No other had tried quite like he.
The years had passed, her forms changing many times from age, Monsters or angry two-leggeds that treated her White-Hair much like the monsters he killed. It infuriated Roach, beyond words and meaning, even more so when she was first brought back to the Keep and met He-Who-Loves-Meadows or as his own two-legged called him: Scorpion.
Their own two-legged's were called Witcher, boys taken from their homes or left abandoned to be mutated to hunt. They were different and so the other angry two-legged hated them, Scorpion had seen the good and the bad – mostly the bad – and had warned Roach to be wary and mindful.
She never let her guard down around the strange settlements, her ears pinned back and eyes wary as she watched for signs of danger her White-Hair could not see. Rocks, rotten fruits, so many words she could barely understand but oh… her heart hurt for her soft White-Hair.
It got worse after one year, her White-Hair returning bloody and beaten, eyes so grieved.
She learnt a new word. Butcher.
She knew that word, it meant a beast who killed her kind.
They did not return to the Keep for three years, not till Scorpion and Kind-Eyes dragged them home.
Scorpion and He-Of-The-Night tried to get her to speak, to tell them all they had been through so they could help but Roach had grown cold and distant in those years. She had watched her White-Hair sleep in the rains, and the snows, watched as he forwent repair on his carapace to keep her well looked after and fed all the while he seemed to dwindle.
She even gave up a form for him so he could eat – a sacrifice not often given among her kind – but when he found her again, he was worse and she never tried to offer that once more.
"I learnt," was her reply when asked. She wouldn't expand further no matter how Scorpion or Horse bothered her. Even the goat, lil' Bleater or Dancer-of-War was concerned and asked.
After a while they stopped asking, accepting her new look on the life they lead by their Witcher's sides. Companions to ease the burden, to carry what which they cant and in dire need, to carry their corpse home if able. A task they were never officially given but that's what you did in a herd, you cared for those all in it.
Years passed like that, many of which Roach lost count of until one year.
One year they met a strange two-legged, young, whiny and very colourful. He chattered at her White-Hair with words that she knew, drawing her attention momentarily in curiosity. This was the first two-legged not attached to her herd that was kind to her White-Hair, though her curiosity turned into dismissal as the familiar word stuck out.
Butcher.
She watched with one eye as her Witcher stuck the noisy two-legged, a first for her in many years. He was not one for unneeded violence, his heart soft even though it shouldn't be, they both knew all too well what causing harm to the angry two-legged would cause… yet… yet her White-Hair struck the noisy-one and kept walking, yet the foal – for surely this one must be a foal still if he ignores a correction of such – still followed with no intent of harm.
She learnt new words. White Wolf. A name that she prefers much over Butcher that something within her settled. It was close to the name she gave him, a name she was thinking of when the noisy-one gave it to him.
Peace left her quickly after a week, the noisy-one never stopped moving, never stopped chittering, never stopped trying to pat her. No matter how fast Roach ran or how far, the noisy-one always still found them, chittering excited, calling her White-Hair and her by name.
That winter she greeted her Herd Mates with a huff.
"We had some Noisy-One follow us this year on the path." She ranted not even waiting to be unsaddled and unburdened before starting. "Always chittering, always in our space and not one sense of thought to his life following us… can't even build a proper fire or fight… tried many times to braid my mane. Ignored all my corrections!"
"Sounds foal-like." Horse snorted as he stuck his head in the bag of oats.
Scorpion stuck his head over the stall door. "One who was not afraid of our Witchers?"
This pulled Roach up short, her anger and ranting falling into a confused nicker. She thinks back to when the Noisy-One joined them. Not once did he reek of the fear that she's learnt to smell, oh there were times he did smell like it, when there were monsters near but he always retreated to behind her White-Hair or her but the smell was never caused because of… oh…
"No… no he was not." She replied, tenderly nibbling White-Hair's carapace as he brushes her down.
"Shh Roach, we – safe home." He whispered to her only using half the words she knew.
One of these days I need to master their strange two-legged words…
It was a long moment of him grooming her, making sure she was fed and warm before leaving her in her stall once more. Roach had many things to think about, many interactions with the strange Noisy-One to think back on.
"Perhaps if he is not afraid then he may be different than those that hurt our herd-mates," Scorpion stated deep into the night, his large dark eyes flickering towards her.
"You may be right. I may have to gather all I know and then more come Spring when we walk the Path once again… if the Noisy-One finds us." She replied and it was left at that, no mentions of the Noisy-One were discussed again. "So brothers, tell me how your season went."
The years went on, sometimes the Noisy-One was not seen for many seasons, sometimes more or sometimes less. They always found them though and soon enough Roach started to notice things. Things like her White-One ate more, rested more while caring for the Noisy-One, and was greeted more warmly in settlements. She of course was treated to more oats and fresh apples, the noisy-one became noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks.
Though her White-Hair called him Jaskier. Buttercup. A fitting name for a foal like him.
Her Witcher became something else, something from before Butcher and in that time, Roach didn't realise how much she had come to love this strange two-legged who saw her Witcher as a being and not a monster like everyone else. Not until the fight with a Wyvern.
Her White-Hair had left the Jaskier back in the camp to hunt the beast, Roach was taken because of course. She was his companion, his last chance of strength for when his ran out and it ran out. He was struck down, the winged beast tearing through his carapace like flesh and bringing forth red. Roach screamed when the beast fell dead and her Witcher with it.
Her hooves tore up the ground as she pushed herself forward, her subtle magic washing over him to lend her strength so he could pull himself up into the saddle. It was a blur after that, between one blink and the next she was back at the camp with the noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks.
She watched with anxiety as he fluttered about, clumsily undoing the carapace to get to the wounds. His hands shook as he cleaned them, his scent rising her own panic as he eyed her and hurried to her side. Roach dared not move as he fumbled through the bags, holding up vials her Witcher took to heal or to help battle.
"Which one Roach, I'm not sure which one I need to help him!" The words were high and panicked as he held up the bottles in the light. It took a beat of her heart to realise she understood the words perfectly and nudged her nose to one.
"That one – Red heals."
Jaskier's eyes flickered to her in relief as he slid to his knees and tipped the red potion into her Witcher's mouth. "Thank you, Roach, you sweet girl."
It was then she also realised that her White-Hair was an idiot.
Because noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks clearly wished White-Hair to be his Life-Mate.
After that night Roach allowed noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks to be near her, to brush her down when her White-Hair could not, to weave flowers into her mane with praises of her beauty. She also tried very much to speak with him again, to understand his words fully.
"Tell White-Hair you wish to be Life-Mates." She nudges him forward, pushing him into White-Hair after a relaxing day in a meadow they had found.
Jaskier laughed and hugged her close, petting her in all the right places that itched. "No Roach my sweet girl."
"He wishes to be Life-Mates! He watches you too when you're not looking!" She grunts and watches as noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks hums but does not reply, his eyes locked on White-Hair in the sunlight.
"Maybe, but not today," Jaskier replied idly, grinning broadly and rushing forward with a laugh.
It was then that Roach realised she had to suffer two idiots till the end of her days.
Both who wished to be Life-Mates but ignored it and one who didn't realise he understood her.
R
Many seasons passed and Roach was still suffering the idiocy of her tiny herd.
"I don't understand why White-Hair wishes to be life-mates with smells-like-flower-poison over noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks! He makes the people hurt us less, and makes sure we are well-fed and cared for! He loves us!" She ranted, hooves stomping the snow in the small yard set for them. "He even said that he learnt how to heal properly, how to care for me properly when White-Hair cant! Yet my Idiot doesn't see!"
"Two-Legged are stupid." Horse snorted. "I had to throw mine into a swamp full of Monsters for him to see his Life-Mate properly, their courting is unlike ours."
Scorpion – always the calm one – snorted in comfort, grooming her to help calm her frustrations. "This Two-Legged you love, I remember the day you wouldn't do anything but complain about him, how you didn't trust him. Yet here you are angry on his behalf because this smells-like-flower-poison is stealing White-Hair's attention?"
"No, because anyone with eyes can see noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks and White-Hair are Life-Mates but those two! I know she knows! She hurts my foal!" The last word was screamed loud enough that it caused her White-Hair to come running, his eyes wild and fear filled as he shoved himself between Scorpion and herself while Kind-Eyes did the same.
Horse and Lil' Bleater's eyes snapped to hers as she huffed and snorted, never taking her eyes away from Scorpion.
"Perhaps it's time to find noisy-colourful-being-with-snacks ourselves… he must be truly magnificent to capture the Maternal love of a Unicorn such as you," Scorpion replied as he was lead away, leaving Roach in the tender care of her own two-legged stunned.
Yes, that seemed right.
The two-legged who carried a flower name, who cared for her as one would a herd mate… oh, how did she not see this sooner?
When did she begin to see him as a foal of hers and not just a Companion?
Roach wasn't sure but she'll make sure nothing bad comes to him while in her care, even if that means eating smells-like-flower-poison's hair.