Marta

She is the titular main antagonist in *Rivals*. She is the archenemy of Rowena who started the war between them after finding her in her barn.

## Affiliations

### Past

Joshua's farm (evicted), Nina's herd (banished)

## **Physical Appearance**

Marta is a medium-sized, physically immature donkey with shaggy, unkempt, reddish-brown fur, long, black-tipped ears, and a white muzzle. She has dark brown eyes, a short black mane, a white underbelly, and black lower legs. There is a large tuft of black fur on the end of her tail and she has white circles around her eyes. She wears a bell around her neck, which, according to her former herd, is the bell of shame.

## ***Rivals***

### **Chapter 4: Donkey Problems**

Marta, along with the rest of Nina's herd, enters the main barn, where they find an exhausted Rowena sleeping on a large pile of straw. She and the other donkeys surround the fox and start sniffing her. Rowena, half-asleep, lashes out with a foot and kicks Marta in the face. Despite her aunt's warning, Marta retaliates by biting Rowena's foot and starts antagonizing her for fun. Once Rowena fully wakes up, she sees Marta and starts angrily chasing her. Nina and the other donkeys watch in horror as the starving fox catches Rowena and is about to devour her. However, Joshua, the farm's owner, arrives in time to save her life. He sedates Rowena and takes her into his house to nurse her back to health.

Rowena later sees him leading Marta into the house and putting a bell around her neck, something she greatly dislikes. Marta tries multiple times to get the bell off, but fails. Rowena tries to compromise with Marta, saying she'll remove the bell if the donkey apologizes for causing trouble. However, Marta, being extremely stubborn like most donkeys, refuses since she sees Rowena as an enemy and predator for trying to eat her. Knowing Marta won't change her mind for anything, Rowena tells her to figure out how to remove the bell on her own. The fox later sees Marta trying to bite the bell off with her teeth. Joshua comes in and puts a muzzle on Marta to prevent her from doing so before tying her up in Rowena's room as punishment. While Rowena recovers, she strikes up a rivalry with Marta when the two begin to constantly annoy each other.

This new rivalry continues after Rowena's recovery, especially since the fox views Marta as prey. Things get worse for both of them when Joshua starts letting some of the other donkeys into the house, including Nina. One day, while Joshua goes shopping to get food for the animals, Marta catches Rowena digging through the icebox in the kitchen for meat, tossing out some vegetables in the process. Marta, wanting to eat different foods than her usual hay, starts eating the vegetables that Rowena tossed onto the floor. This catches the attention of Nina and two other donkeys. They try to eat some of the vegetables, but Marta, greedily wanting them all for herself, gets to the food first and fights back when they try to take it from her. Rowena, while eating the meat she found, watches the scuffles in amusement. She tilts over the icebox so the remaining vegetables fall onto the floor, prompting Marta and the other donkeys to grab what they can, resulting in a feeding frenzy. A few more donkeys arrive on the scene and join in the chaos, causing the fight over the food to escalate. Marta, despite being less mature, is stronger than most of the other donkeys and easily beats them back with nasty kicks. She briefly grapples with Nina before dragging Rowena into the fight by stepping on her foot. The pain sets off Rowena's predatory instincts, and the fox starts chasing Marta again. The two tear through the house, scaring off the other donkeys and destroying several items in the process.

Marta stops running when she sees the other donkeys, who have now fled to the front yard, looking at the approaching Joshua, who has returned from shopping. Frightened, she tries to head for the back door, but Rowena crashes into her, sending the two tumbling and rolling into the living room. In an attempt to get Rowena to let go of her, Marta whacks the fox's face with her front hoof, winding her. Rowena tries to kick her in retaliation, but misses; she kicks a table lamp instead and sends it flying out the window, breaking both items in the process. Marta tries to kick Rowena off of her, but Joshua suddenly bursts into the house and examines the mess they made, prompting the two to stop fighting. Joshua sees them and berates them for destroying his house, yelling that Marta is an equine version of a pig and that Rowena is no better, adding he shouldn't have helped her. He kicks them both from the house and yells that they're evicted from the farm, telling them not to come back or he'll shoot them. Realizing that she lost her home, Marta pleads with Nina to let her stay, apologizing for all the trouble she's caused over the years. However, Nina and the other donkeys, having had enough of her immature antics, rebuff her apology, with Nina telling her she is not one of them and never has been. With that, the donkeys shun Marta and retreat to the barn, shutting the door to prevent her from following them.

Marta, hurt at the rejection, and Rowena, angry for costing her a potential new home, blame each other for what happened and start fighting again only to halt at the sound of Joshua firing his rifle as a warning to leave. Realizing Rowena still sees her as food, Marta turns and flees into the woods nearby with the fox hot on her tail. During their chase, the two come up with new ways to outwit each other as predator and prey.