The waves were coming and going, a constant and endless tide that reached up the shoreline and pulled away again over and over and over. Tarrant watched them, the white sea foam stuck to the sand as the water left it behind. The edges of the tide barely reached an inch from his hooves with the last wave. His green eyes lifted up and looked toward where they were forming, wondering if he’d get one strong enough to climb up and pool around his fetlocks. So far it didn’t look promising but, as if he was hypnotized, he continued watching them all come and go.

The ocean, Atlantis, the sun… This island, his home. Tarrant had never realized how much he’d missed it when he’d left it the last time. Yet even the familiarity of this island could not ease what woes ached in his heart. Nothing could. He didn’t even want to admit it to himself – why his smiles were gone, why his body sagged and he plodded rather than pranced. Even thinking about it, even giving himself that small acknowledgement that it existed and had the power to emotionally cripple him, stung tears in his eyes.

Closing his lids to the prickling burn to keep them at bay, Tarrant wasn’t aware of the figure that was approaching him on the shoreline until the steps of hooves nearly muffled by sand caused him to twitch his ear. Lifting his skull Tarrant turned his thick neck, green eyes surveying the buckskin as he approached. The question was a strange one but easy enough for the stallion to answer. “Uh, no,” he started, but the stallion had already walked off. Tarrant watched him as he did so with a curious frown and called out as the stallion doubled back, “I haven’t seen her – sorry.” Tarrant shifted in the sand. “Would you… Like some help looking for her?” It was all he could think to offer.