A Surprise Extra Meal

About a week after returning from Miho, Friday morning arrived.

The early-morning pasture was still covered in dew when Gozen, the newly appointed kindergarten teacher, was already standing atop a slightly raised hillock, her ears swiveling alertly.

Nearby, the chestnut and dark bay childhood friends were sleeping soundly with their heads pressed together.

The two little ones had been inseparable since before they were weaned. Even when they were turned out to pasture, they insisted on moving only once they were both ready—though Little Light was usually the one acting spoiled.

As though she had noticed someone approaching, Hibae, who appeared to be sleeping deeply, immediately flicked her ears and opened her eyes alertly.

"Ah, it's you."

Her ears rotated as though greeting them, and only then did the chestnut mare slowly narrow her eyes again.

At that moment, Little Light, with a translucent strand of drool still hanging from her lips, finally woke up.

"You're too slow, Little Light."

After waking, the two children first trotted toward Gozen with the quick, delicate steps of fawns.

Gozen had been fast asleep during a brief break from her duties as the lead horse when, before she knew it, two foals had wrapped themselves around her.

"Teacher Gozen, where are we going later?"

"I want to stay with Teacher Gozen!"

"I want to go back with Teacher Gozen!"

Even a professional racehorse who had once been a lead horse could not help growing tired of such daily life—especially when one of the two children she looked after was a mischievous little troublemaker like Little Light.

Still, even when she was in a deep sleep that said, "I really can't go on," she would immediately wake up and eat any peppermint candy held to her lips—exactly like everyone else at the farm in