Delight spangled my bones as Katriel zipped into play. The dark mare was an unusually suitable companion for me. Fast, efficient yet aloof enough to impale my interest. My eyes flashed appreciation and again that wry humour that had escaped me these last few months. Katriel had the special quality of moving whilst exuding stillness and it put me at ease, seemingly familiar, whilst making me watchful simultaneously. Her muzzle brushed my shoulder, every nerve ending shrieking at warm contact. How long since you’ve been close enough for another’s touch, Nova? Who knows. My journey had been a long one; and still it was being written.
The gesture, though alien to me, was appreciated; I leaned into it briefly. I considered her words. Taken from her…a transparent answer. I saw immediately that opacity was not welcome or warranted here; the ropes that bound us were part of a greater tapestry. It would have been the answer I’d have given had I not still been reluctant to converse without a defensive membrane of guile. This membrane was forthwith dispensed. I felt like a drawbridge had been lowered and hailed access to a problem I’d seen no way to advance with.
“I’m sorry.” The words were clipped, gravelly. They were inadequate but at the same time I wouldn’t dress them up in sentiments I knew nothing about. This was business for now…two CEO’s shaking hands in the boardroom, respecting each other’s success, the merger mutually beneficial. Feeling the deficiency in my previous answer I turned my muzzle to the East before turning back to her, gaze implying something meaningful and belying the levity in my tone.
“Snap!”
I stalked forwards a few paces, curving my body in invitation to follow. My steps were fluid, purposeful. As I could now assess her in full light, and downwind, her familiarity made my heart thud until I swore I could hear it thumping on my breast-bone. The resemblance to the stallion who’d taken my daughter was uncanny. I exhaled slowly, knowing this would attenuate the increase in pulse, eyes never leaving her face. The past, present and future could be read there, my mother had told me. One of her wiser pieces of advice.
My ears pricked as a gust of wind blew through, dragging with it a plethora of new scents. I watched Katriel’s imperceptible stiffening and trapped the same scents in my nose to remember should I later need them. My gut instinct did not scream ‘enemy’ – and yet everything about Katriel, from her appearance to the timing of her arrival to the islands – reeked of a connection to Luciro. Maybe he’d stolen something of hers too. I chuckled, but it was mirthless.
Without preamble but keeping my voice low I resumed walking until we were out of earshot of the others. “I’m seeking my daughter. She’s with a stallion, Luciro. We do not…how do I put this politely…get on.” My insides twisted with hate as I spoke his name, memories tickling me with a thousand forked tongues. I relaxed my throat to conclude efficiently; “I know he is on these islands and I think it best to wait for him to locate me. I follow the way of the leopard; be ambusher not ambushee,” indeed there was something cat-like in my expression now as I tipped my head towards her and said casually, as though we were strolling arm in arm round a rose garden waiting for scones, “you resemble him in form.”
Though of course this was no English tea party, and any scarlet stain on our dresses would not be strawberry jam.