Just as El Aran’s belly neared repletion, she saw a dark shape crossing the desert and heading towards the oasis when she lifted her head again to check the horizon. The black mare swallowed her mouthful and stood still, ears up and chin tipped down as her dark eyes focused on the approaching horse. The seer chanted an internal prayer, and the simple repetition of the words calmed her and helped steady her breathing. She would not be undone by her own terror if she needed to defend her territory.

It was not until the horse became recognizable that El Aran relaxed, however. The familiar sorrel coat could only belong to Vesti, returning from somewhere that was not here. She watched the mare trot into the oasis, heading for the water, and uttered a low “Günaydın,” as Vesti passed. Though her guard had lessened somewhat, the matte-black mare still did not resume grazing. Instead she watched Vesti lower her head to drink, fixated on the movement of her muscles beneath the copper-red skin of her neck as she slaked her thirst. El Aran thought about the blood that flowed beneath the surface and all the vulnerable points on a horse’s body and how it was once again critical for her to assess each equine who entered the Desert as an enemy rather than a neutral force.

It was the only way to keep the herd safe.

El Aran flicked one ear toward her herd mate and pulled her eyes away, focusing her gaze once more on the outskirts of her home. "No," she says, but does not elaborate on her succinct reply until after she has scanned the distant sands and judged it safe to swing her head toward the other mare. "Vesti. Our home is threatened. Call upon your strength and hold it close, for our herd needs it now. Danger brews like a storm in the distance," and El Aran drew in a sharp breath, reminded suddenly of that ominous encounter with the spawn of evil on the rising bluffs at the edge of Salem’s Wastelands. A physical storm had broken then, and she had been pregnant with Iskelet. El Aran shuddered her coat as she remembered the electrified air that had almost sparked between herself and the silver-black stallion. There was no rain today. Only heat and a growing dread of the dark.

"Aşk has been gracious enough to send me a sign, but now it is up to us to prepare ourselves.” Her eyes shifted to the horizon again, taking in the cloudless sky and how average the day appeared. But any moment now the bay Akhal-Teke could come striding back over a low dune to threaten her again, or a worse sight might appear on the horizon: a gray mare, freckled with red and bleeding at both shoulders, her dished face a silhouette in front of the sun. El Aran realized abruptly the she was breathing too fast, each consecutive inhale threatening to become a gasp. The seer shook her head and flared her nostrils in an attempt to regain control. The horizon was empty, and so it would remain as long as she patrolled their borders and repelled all who stepped across the Desert’s sand.