Quiet was his Paradise, and Tarrant couldn’t complain. Like any good stallion he patrolled his borders every morning and night, testing strange scents and making certain there was no unwanted intruder. Yet unlike a good stallion, Tarrant did not swim the channel to Crossing Isle that frequently. He did not hover around homeless mares and woo them back to his shoreline. Maybe he was too old, maybe he was too tired. He couldn’t give those mares what they wanted – he couldn’t give them that love they so hungrily craved. That hope for a newborn in the future – for Tarrant wasn’t sure he ever wished to sire another foal.

So Paradise stayed quiet and Tarrant stayed content, listening to the calls of jungle birds and the croaks of brightly colored frogs.

The sweat inspired by the jungle’s humidity dampened his coat, making its gold and white sheen appear darker than it was. He moved quietly as a horse might, hooves cushioned by the damp jungle floor, large green leafed plants reaching back and brushing around his legs. The vines looped over tree branches were walked carefully around (he’d been snagged by one as a young, brash stallion, running through the jungle) and his white tail hung listlessly against his rump. His nostrils quivered as a sudden strong scent brushed across his nose and Tarrant stopped, green eyes casting a glance out into the shadowed jungle.

There she was. The stranger that he had given the protection of the jungle to. The stranger who, in spite of such few words shared between them, must have understood him better than anyone else did. Or so that’s what he told himself. That’s what Tarrant pretended. It was easier to think the jungle had been the balm on a wounded spirit for someone else just as it had for him. He nickered to her gently, softly, just a whisper of a noise tangled in the music of Atlantis. He wondered whether her attitude toward his company remained the same or if she might let him linger nearby. He wouldn’t hope for or press for anything further, but his curious spirit pressed his ears toward her as he waited…