Ah, so she didn’t know. Yusuf took a deep breath, preparing an explanation.

“I washed up on the shore here some time ago,” he began. “I was attempting to swim from the Crossing but a storm came and I nearly drowned. There was a mare that found me and I was certain she was going to kill me, despite my apology for intruding.”

The mud-colored stallion paused and sighed, wondering for a moment how it was possible that he had lived through both the storm and the ire of the hostile mare, among other tribulations.

“If Orhan hadn’t intervened, I suppose she might have succeeded.”

Yusuf collected stories like these the way a mongrel collected fleas—with little effort. He contemplated once more whether it was simply luck that let him live this long, or if there was some intangible force that was responsible. Part of him wondered what would happen if he actually tried to kill himself on purpose. Is that what his dream had meant?

“I am really not sure what to do now,” he admitted.



-yusuf