Xina walked alone along the beach; her thoughts swirling of Mera and Conquistador and how much they had grown. Age was catching up to the mare and she knew it with the little things that had changed in her life. The stiffness in her joints when she first woke with the sun and the weariness she carried compared to her daughter’s constant energy. It was both humbling and worrisome to the mare to realize how long her life had carried her and what all she had accomplished yet still waited for.


Casting her gaze out across the soft rolling sea she wondered what might have happened should she have chosen to stay on Salem rather than making her way to Atlantis and meeting Debonaire. In ways she questioned if it would have been best if she had never met the pale stallion but her heart knew better than that and even though it was broken now, it had at least felt the joy of love while it lasted. Xina would never regret meeting that stallion or the wonderful time they had spent together as good things never lasted forever.


Suddenly a harsh scent intruded on her nares that she had not expected. Coming to a complete halt the mare dragged in another deep breath and cast her eyes to the ground. Fresh tracks marked the sand before her hooves that reeked of a familiar scent. Xina’s breath caught and she felt a fresh wave of anxiety flash through her as she jerked up her head and looked farther down the beach where the tracks were heading. She did not see Rade but she knew he was here; the time had finally come that he would try to take Conquistador away.


The roan mare picked up a fast canter that would not zap her energy like a run might have but she had no time to spare for a simple trot. Xina had to find Rade before he could find Conquistador but as she moved farther along she spotted the duo out in the water standing on what seemed a sand bar. Ears pinning back to her poll and disappearing beneath the dark locks she strode confidentially out into the water, the waves splashing up against her chest and flank as it retaliated the thrust of each leg that cut through its force.


”Rade”


The tone that laced her voice was full of cold venom; a threat for what she knew he had come for. Xina did not raise her voice and it was kept calm, a display of just how serious she was as she approached them.