[Others mentioned, not focused]
While it wasn't uncommon for the two to meet, still, it had become far less common than before.
And that's where the problem lie.
Each time Sadiki spied his eldest daughter's shape on the horizon, his mind flashed back to when she was much younger; Never far from his side, easily found. Calling on her back then would be easy, and he always knew where she was. It was part of being a father, he supposed, and even when he fathered more children, his first daughter was never far from the forefront of his mind.
Thankfully, his younger children understood why he was so concerned about their half-sister once they met her. The way she talked, moved, thought...There was a reason Sadiki was so protective, even when he knew she was in good hooves with her, at the time, partner.
Once he fully lost contact, when she seemed to be completely lost, he needed to cope. He needed to keep a good grip of the good memories and remember how far she had come. Not one to pray normally, he did end up praying to whoever would listen that his little girl would be okay.
Surprisingly, it took her arriving with her new mate- the true other half of her soul- to calm him. To see her happiness. To...accept that everything was alright. That she was fine.
And that was his biggest problem. He had to see her to believe that she was alright. Even with the reassurance of Coyotl, and even his newest children, Sadiki couldn't help but fret. The 'what if's' were never-ending, and sometimes he had nightmares that took Coyotl's soft touch to calm him from.
"Papa!"
Ozzie's soft voice was louder than he was used to, but it nevertheless shook him hard from his inner thoughts, and he left the small clearing in front of the den to approach his daughter, tail waving in obvious happiness and ears perked. His babiest of girls always made him happy.
For her part, Ozzie was content to stand back and let her father approach. As far as she knew, she had to let him have some exercise- Her papa wasn't a young stallion anymore, and she was absolutely certain that while Coyotl was younger, the two of them together were lazy. (She's absolutely right, the lazy bums.) Even the arrival of her new half-siblings probably wasn't reason enough for the couple to be more active.
Unlike Sadiki, Ozzie was more than content to not look back. Happiness was her family. Happiness was Kaldin. Their children were Joy. Their den was Safety.
"You're looking a little fuller, Ozz." Sadiki rumbled as he came up to his daughter, pulling her into an embrace, nuzzling her as he had always done. It was strange, for all her life her scent had been the same, but ever since she'd met and began living with her mate, her scent had changed. It was...
"You too, and you're smelling better!" Ozzie voiced what he was unsure of.
Sadiki found himself starting slightly, going comically wide-eyed as he leaned back in mock indignation. "Are...are you calling me fat, Ozz?!" He gasped, playing the part of a hurt party.
For all his acting, he earned a giggle as Ozzie gently bonked him with her head. "A little, papa. You and Coy-Coy are kinda lazy bums." She teased, unable to keep her amusement out of her voice.
If there was one thing he did love about his daughter, it was that she spoke her mind more often. In her youth, she was so shy, so unable to speak even if she was in pain or in trouble. Part of the reason that he knew very few of their, as far as he knew, extensive family tree was that he didn't even know about Ozzie's first foals until it was just....too late. And he-
"Where are they, though?" Once again, he was jolted out of his past reminiscing. "Coy-Coy and my siblings?" Ozzie asked, tilting her head with wide, curious eyes.
While she held very little ties to her first set of half-blooded siblings, the children Sadiki and Coyotl were blessed with had turned out to be a very different story. Ozzie had taken to them very easily, and she was especially close to Eunhae, their very youngest son. And once again, it was surprising. It was different than how she would have been in the past.
"Out until tomorrow." Sadiki answered as he turned to head back into the den. "Color me surprised kiddo, I didn't think you would even-"
"Care...?" Ozzie finished, her joyful voice now tinged with sadness. Enough to make the stallion stop and turn to look at her as she continued. "I don't know why you ask that every time, papa..."
"Well, it's just because--" Sadiki started, only to be interrupted again.
"Because I didn't used to?" Ozzie finished for him, heaving a sigh that had her whole body react.
"I..."
"Do...you only think of past me, papa?" Ozzie asked, her voice small even as she stood tall and firm. "What about me now? What about me...tomorrow?"
Pausing at her question, Sadiki furrowed his brow. It wasn't bad to think about your child's past, right? Remembering when she was little, reminiscing... But wasn't she right? Wasn't he stuck thinking about a version of her that only existed in his memories? His worries, his stress, his nightmares...
"Can't you look at the future too, papa?" Ozzie's voice lost it's sadness, and seemed to have gained an edge of hope. "I mean...I know I'm still your daughter, but...I'm not...the daughter from back then..." She lamented, scuffing a hoof on the ground.
"It's not like I'm trying to stay there..." Sadiki replied after a few seconds of somewhat awkward silence. "It's just...hard to..."
"I'm going to have more babies someday."
"Heh?!"
A giggle later, Ozzie leaned in close to headbump him again. "Not right now, but...someday, Kaldin and I want more. And you need to be there, ready for them. Not thinking about the me then."
She was right, Sadiki realized. While he had visited his newest set of grandchildren, he hadn't quite bonded with them as much as he was sure Ozzie had wanted him to.
He was running away from her development and ignoring what she'd been through. He needed to face the future in order to move forward with his family, and not end up letting them move on without him.
Heaving a heavy sigh, he hung his head slightly, bangs obscuring his eyes.
"And I've treated you like that every single time, haven't I?" He asked, feeling the guilt in his bones now.
"Mmhm." Ozzie readily agreed. "But...I talked with Kaldin about it, because he's the best listener. And...He said I need to wake you up."
Harsh, yes, but not entirely incorrect.
It had been years. It was time to wake up.
"...Can we start again?" Sadiki asked, tilting his head at his daughter with a smile. "With me greeting my daughter, asking about her family instead of wallowing in the past?"
While her bright smile was all the answer he truly needed, she still spoke brightly. "I wanna go forward, yes! I mean...We gotta face what happened in the past, yeah...But, that's the only way we can keep going with everyone else, right?"
When had she become so wise? That wasn't fir to her, he knew, to question the wisdom she'd learned. His daughter wasn't stupid, he knew that, so he had no right to question her knowledge. Her thoughts, her wisdom...
She'd changed, and so should he.
"Right." He finally agreed, suddenly feeling a lightness in his chest he didn't know was possible. Like something had been weighing him down for a long, long time.
"Well...We gotta turn around even though we're gonna move forward." Ozzie giggled once again, motioning to the den that was now behind them, they'd shuffled around so much without thinking.
"...Well, you know the way in!" Sadiki laughed, a full-belly laugh he hadn't laughed in what felt like ages. "Go on!"
It was new, letting her walk ahead of him. She'd been a new mare for quite some time, and though he had been afraid to acknowledge it, this small conversation was so, so important for them both. For them to move forward and accept their changes and a new beginning for everyone they cared for.
A father proud of his daughter's change. A daughter happy that her father had the ability to change.
