Falls

Not for the first time, El Aran wondered if she had made a bad decision in accepting the bay ‘Teke’s assistance.

The air had cooled over the past few days, and even though it was daytime still the black mare could tell the heat from the sun had lost some intensity. Already the leaves on the trees were beginning to flare with color. The mare from the desert had no interest in wintering on the Crossing again, but currently she had no where else to go. Maslakhat was nowhere to be found (not that El Aran had been looking very hard: a small but unacknowledged part of her felt ashamed at having a ‘Teke do her dirty work, a task she knew from past experiences that she was more than capable of carrying out for herself) and as far as she knew, that orospu still had a hold of Orhan’s ear. She shook out her coarse mane and snorted. It did not do to dwell on things over which she had zero control. Maslakhat would either succeed or fail, and when the seer discovered which then she could focus on her next path.

Plagued by the uncertainty of the future, El Aran returned to what she had first mistaken as a tribute to her goddess upon arriving at the Islands of the Lost. The waterfall was no less awe-inspiring than the night she had first set hoof on the Crossing, tumbling down from the mountain with a muted roar audible even from across the grassy field, and she loped towards it on hooves still unused to ground that didn’t shift beneath her feet. It was hard to be away from home. She missed her son. She missed Vesti. She missed having a consistent place to sleep at night.

A few horses congregated around the wide pool at the base of the waterfall, but El Aran avoided them and ventured off to one side where the rocks were slimed with moss and water. The rangy mare was looking for solitude. Instead, she found a young mare resting by the water. El Aran hesitated, one ear swiveling back, but decided there was no point in leaving. Her thoughts had been circling one another all morning; perhaps some company would help keep her mind off her personal dilemmas.

El Aran had never learned the knack of casual conversation, however, and she opened communication with the stranger by staring her straight in the face and asking, "If the Gods walked the Earth, would you keep Them company or do what you could to deflect Their attention away from you?"