Out of politeness, the young mare did not lift her eyes from her meal as Xanti emerged dripping from the water and made himself comfortable on the shore beside her. When he spoke, however, she snuck a look, and felt her cheeks burning as his sleek, wet hair caught the sunlight and glistened like sealskin. It was with some effort that she shyly met his eyes again and swallowed her mouthful of prickly desert grass.
“Oh, I, uh, actually I don’t have a home right now, technically.” Her eyes turned to the surface of the oasis, and idly she watched flies lazily buzzing across its silvery surface. Suddenly she could remember just who it was Xanti reminded her of. “Well, I’ve been to the big island – the one with the waterfall – and before here I was in a place called Paradise. It was lovely. There was a very nice stallion there called Sahin. You might like him; I think you might have a thing or two in common.”
She hoped earnestly she had not stepped out of her place by suggesting such a thing; friendly as Xanti was, she was still unfamiliar with herd dynamics on the islands, and had no idea if he was the type that hated other stallions.
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