Most of the mares who washed up on Şahin’s shore (they were always mares) were pale and pleasant. The one who walked his beach now was dark, black, and the stallion could tell even from several hundred feet away that the mare’s ears were not up. It was possible the mare did not have any ears at all (and how sad that would be, if that were the case) or that they were just tangled in the midnight froth of her mane. Şahin trotted closer. He’d been more tired than usual the last few days, given that there were two new foals in the Paradise to entertain, and had taken some time for himself this morning to haunt one of his favorite solitary places.

It had to be coincidence that every time (so it seemed) that the Nez Perce left his hoofprints in the sand, he would come across some stranger who came in with the tide. At least this mare (and the ones before her) had never come to shore floating on their sides, waterlogged and rotting. The stallion shivered his shiny golden coat at the thought and dismissed the darkness that threatened to overshadow his mood this morning. The mare, he saw as he neared, did have ears and they were pinned back. He wondered what had fouled her disposition on such a lovely day (if indeed anything had at all) and hailed her with a friendly nicker.

“Hello! Welcome to Paradise.” His warm eyes flicked across her body, noting the soft outline of her ribs before traveling back to her flattened ears and then again to her face, where his gaze remained, unchallenging, as he continued, “Lovely morning for a swim— how cold is the water today?” He had half a mind to bring the foals down here to teach them about the tides later in the afternoon, and show them the safer pool of ocean water cupped by that long sandbar he and Conquistador had spoken on a few weeks ago. Cold water could easily be a deterrent to new swimmers, however, and the last thing he wanted was for his children to be afraid of something that separated each island from the other.