For You | Briny & Kristofer

Kristofer | The Folk

The busyness of the morning had kept his mind at bay, at best. First light had barely broken through the window of the caravan before Inigo had stirred, and that in turn of course woke the ever so light of a sleeper Taline, who of course in turn woke Kristofer with a rather forceful, although accidental, kick to the chest. He knew she was still growing accustomed to sharing her bed with someone else, but they had to make do until Kristofer could find a place for all three of them to live permanently, close enough to Selora and her uncle that they could care for the children when Kristofer had to be pulled away by work. Yet for now, they were stuck in his tiny caravan, surrounded by blooming flowers and old, unfinished pottery projects he had never gotten around to finding the motivation to complete.

With both children awake before sunrise, Kristofer had breakfast in their mouths quickly. The previous day’s biscuits for each, which Selora baked herself - she was actually a fairly decent cook, and a piece of fruit for them both. Taline had whined that Inigo ate too quickly, to which the bay stallion simply sighed and rolled his eyes, giving her a “I don’t really care how unfair the world is” sort of look. She was so much like their mom - stubborn, brazen, and opinionated. It made him miss their mother dearly.

He had blinked away the thought quickly, as Inigo begged to know when they were going to visit Aunt Selora and their cousin Ellecyn. Both of them had bounced out of the caravan before he could hardly get a “yes” (In had needed Kristofer’s help, he had nearly attempted fluttering off the steps like Taline had and stumbled onto the dirt). Children would be children.

When they had reached Selora’s, he had parked his caravan outside her home, and then retreated inside to make sure the kids weren’t muddying up her carpet… again. Even though Inigo was not his own blood relation, the kid sure acted like his own son. He and Selora had been chatting quietly when he heard a knock. But it didn’t seem to be on the front door. Inigo immediately hollered, “DAAAAAAD! Someone’s at the doooooor!” Kristofer smirked at the kid. Yeah, way too much like him as a kid. “Why don’t you open it and see who it is, feathers? I’m sure they don’t bite.” Kristofer walked up behind his adopted son as he reached for the door, helping him to push the heavy wood open. Just outside of his old, shabby caravan stood Briny, her eyes bloodshot and her overall appearance not nearly as happy as she usually looked. He knew she was having a hard time with the whole kid thing, but something more seemed wrong. And this pushed all of his anxieties of what the child would do to their relationship to the forefront of his mind. “Briny? What are you doing here? Baby, are you alright? You look like hell.” Questions came spewing from his tongue out of concern, all he wanted was to wrap her up in a hug. But Inigo standing just between them kept this from happening. “Inigo, Go find Aunt Sel and tell her we need some sweets for Miss Briny, and then go play with your sister and cousin, okay?” The tiny kirin’s head bounced slowly, as his large eyes looked from the salt-smelling mare to his adoptive father. It took a moment for him to leave, but when he did, sad eyes cast up at Briny, as if to say “don’t give up on my dad just yet, he loves you.” Kristofer didn’t speak up again until after the child had disappeared around the corner, following where his aunt had disappeared off to.

“What’s wrong, love? Please talk to me… we can always talk.” He felt as though he were blabbering at this point. If only he could read the woman’s mind.


1 | word count: 664