Trials of Love

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<sub>Jason leaned on the gate of the paddock, smiling slightly at the pale pair within the field. After all of Lysander's fantastic failures in pursuing romance, to see the creamy stallion finally succeeding felt rather like a victory for the SPaVES rider.

The absolute beginning of Lysander's Trials of Love (yes, capitals and all) had come with his first paddock mates, Iago and Ghostlight. The two colts had been born earlier that year and were already tight as thieves - honestly, there had been no room for a third wheel in their friendship at the time, however it hadn't stopped poor Lysander from trying. The little cream slip of a colt had trotted after the duo trying his hardest to catch their attention, however if ever he managed to catch the eye of either colt, he would immediately trip over his hooves and perform a magnificent faceplant into the grass.

His second attempt at love had been perhaps even more misdirected than his first - for he now turned his sights to the large black patron father of the SPaVES Nordanner program; the intimidating black stallion, Incantation. Not only was the black stallion simply not interested, he had no qualms against biting the pesky little infatuated colt whenever the poor thing got too close.

Attempts three, four and five had all served to turn poor nervous Lysander's stutter permanent, and he now began to withdraw further into his shell of shyness - a twitchy little mess that would hide around corners and stalk his would-be lovers unseen.

It was at this point that he met the stallion Socrates, quite by chance, as the large roan was passing through SPaVES. It was probably the hardest he fell so far, and Jason easily recalled all the times the young yearling would go tripping after the grouchy dark stallion, sidling up to stand by the larger stallion for hours on end, sneaking little shy glances every now and again. Socrates, thankfully, was more of a gentleman than Inca had been, and he willingly accomodated his little cream coloured shadow up until his owners came to collect him days later, breaking poor little Lysander's heart once more.

The young stallion had pined endlessly for days afterwards, barely eating or showing any interest in the many visitors that came by his paddock. Even his favourite types of handsome stallions found themselves turned away with barely a glance as Lysander wallowed in his heartbreak.

It was at this point that he seemed to catch the attention of another young stallion - a pale, muscular young Nordanner by the name of Veritas. His eye had immediately been caught by the strange, listless young stallion who seemed to be his age or younger. Drawn in by the pretty little creature, he began to edge himself into Lysander's life, making himself the unofficial protector of the sad-eyed stranger.

Veritas would pointedly leave little treats for his companion out where Lysander would find them, never taking it badly when his little gifts initially went untouched. Then, when he noticed the apples and piles of sugar he left were disappearing, he began to present other little knick-knacks to the lurking human handlers, making a nuisance of himself until they did as he wished and adorned Lysander's mane and tail with his gifts.

Jason shook himself out of his thoughts and smiled slightly at the grass-green ribbon that sat in Lysander's tail - the latest of Veritas's little trinkets. The two young stallions had been sickeningly adorable all day - following each other around the paddock and grazing close together.

Jason didn't know how the two would react next week, when Veritas's owners would finally come to collect their young stallion from his training hiatus at SPaVES...</sub>

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And so Lysander's going to suffer another little heartbreak soon, poor dear xD; No matter - he'll definitely be seeing more of Socrates and Veritas in the future ;D