Sometimes the sky darkened, both metaphorically and literally, and this was one of the latter times. Şahin had been drowsing near the pool where he and Dia had spent an afternoon when the nature of the air changed, the wind carrying the scent of rain and heat as the sunlight dimmed. When he turned his head, the horizon was a dark smear. The stallion did not hesitate: he hurried about the land to gather up the herd. Satisfied that Xina and the children would stick together, he told them to move further inland, toward the Ridge and the solid rock wall that housed shallow and deep caves before turning his attention to Dia. She had not been with the family of three, and he set out to find her before the storm could bite the shore.

Şahin did a remarkable job (in his opinion) of not panicking when Dia was not in any of her usual haunts. He checked the beach again, eyes half-closed and ears pinned against the loud wind and the sand it whipped up against him. His worry for Xina and the children —what if they didn’t reach the edge of the territory in time, or what if they chose a deep cave and they got lost in the dark?— increased with every heartbeat, and while he knew Dia was a capable mare he worried about her safety just as much as he did the others. He scanned the shore again but the storm was closing in and rain pelted him, big fat drops that carried bits of ice down with them. Şahin snorted and rose in a half-rear to pivot and bolt inland. Dia would have seen the storm approaching and taken shelter, he was certain of that, but he still felt like a liar as he repeated the words to himself until he reached the rendezvous point by the Ridge.

The wind was calmer here, although Şahin knew that would not last. He snorted and shook out his wet body, and when he inhaled he smelled Dia and the scent of a stranger. He stood still and lifted his head, breathing shallowly to pull the scents gingerly out of the air. “Dia?” he called, ears flicking about to catch her response as he moved closer to the rockface. Şahin took a deep breath and tried again. “Dia!”