The idea of leaving the common lands and heading for the Ridge had haunted him at night for days, but he had finally decided it must be done. He had to get his family somewhere safer with stronger borders and another stallion to back him up. The trip had been more a nightmare than he dared dream however. He had lost sight of not only Aveline amongst the waves as they neared Atlantis but of Giselle as well. She was too young for this, he thought for the millionth time as his hooves hit wet sand and he hauled himself up onto the shore. Frantically his eyes scanned the sands and the waves behind him for any signs of his black woman or their red child. “AVELINE!” he cried frantically, “GISELLE!” His words echoed down the beach, but rang hollow with no response.

Without a second thought he broke into a break neck pace down the sands, he was saved from potentially breaking a leg or turning an ankle only from his experience with the sand. It felt like an eternity before he heard a faint cry that could only be from Giselle, though it was possibly only a matter of seconds. Impossibly his pace quickened as he flew toward the sound, pulling to a hard halt at the still, silent form of his daughter. Protectively he stepped over her, dropping his head and nuzzling the filly somewhat roughly in his excitement. “Giselle, Giselle are you ok? Babygirl, talk to me.” He needed her to be ok, he could not live in a world where he had failed so badly.

Reassured that she was, in fact, breathing and not dead, his painted head jerked up and he tried to see Aveline amongst the crashing waves. He thought they had been lucky that no storms were looming and that the waters were calm. This was not the day he had planned. His heart sank to the bottom of his hooves at the thought that she didn’t make it. That something had happened and she wouldn’t appear on the shore. Was this his punishment?

stallion // mixed // fifteen.three // eight // bay dun tobiano [Ee/Aa/Dd/nT] // riley
beckett x summer