He’d tried it out for awhile, but in the end the Lagoon hadn’t satisfied Kendry. He found no fault in the company there or in the territory itself. It was the fact that he’d done nothing (and the blame rested solely on himself, there, for his lack of productivity) during his entire stay with the bachelors. No, it was more than that— it was the fact that he’d had no desire to do anything while at the Lagoon. Kendry had eaten and slept and pissed away almost a year in the Lagoon, and what did he have to show for it? An almost constant state of restlessness and an unusual amount of irritability. He felt jaded by what the islands had offered him in the short three years of his life.
Well, he was going to change that. He’d started today, in fact, and now stood on the shores of Atlantis. It was the first of the islands he’d been to outside of Luthien and the Crossing, and he was looking for his mother. It had been far too long since the perlino stallion had seen his dam. He shook out his coat and snorted saltwater from the tip of his nose as he looked inland, the powerful ocean breeze pushing his pale forelock into his blue eyes. It had been good to have the wind at his back as he swam— it was almost as if nature had propelled him to Atlantis’s shores and blessed his transition from bachelorhood to the life of a nomad.
Most notable about the shoreline of the Ridge were the rocky outcroppings that jutted into the ocean before rising to impressive cliffs further down the beach. Kendry had no doubt that the rest of the territory boasted equally awe-inspiring ridges, but before he could make the decision to trot inward and explore the land he caught sight of two horses poised on the rocks on the beach to his right. One was clearly a child, standing on legs that looked too long for its body, while the other was clearly a fully mature adult. Both stood facing the sea, and the confidence in their stances attracted the pale stallion immediately.
Kendry made his way down the beach and picked through the rocks scattered along the sand, eventually climbing over the damp stones as they grew larger the closer he got to the pair. The foal was a pale red color and speckled with a smattering of white while the older horse —a mare, and thus presumably the filly’s mother— had a dark face that lightening to a smoky gray. The gradient reminded Kendry of ash. Or of storm clouds, he thought, for the mare had an air that could be interpreted as ominous. Her self-assured posture inspired respect.
“Hey there,” he greeted them as he stopped on a large rock that had cracked down the middle. He raised his deep voice to be heard over the humming of the ocean to his left. “You look like you know what’s up. Is this territory the Ridge?” The young stallion flicked his wet tail and glanced at the filly, curiosity about the two females rising within him like a new tide.
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