The steel-colored mare had lived in the Desert for nearly a year, but she was hardly completely acclimated to the terrain's tough climate. She found herself confined to the oasis for much of her stay, especially during the harsh summer months as of late. That is, at least until the sun went down. Her sleeping patterns had shifted because she was so enthralled with the exotic landscape. She tried to sleep most of the day under the shade of the palms in the oasis in order to conserve her energy. By sunset, she was eager to get moving, to explore the endless sea of sand when the temperatures would drop and the only thing beating down on her was the purple blanket of stars overhead.
On this particular day Nova dozed per usual under the shade of her favorite palm, her striking blue eyes held half open as her bottom whiskered lip drooped lazily against a knee of a front leg. A rare breeze ruffled the long palms overhead, but she didn't wake until after the sun had set and the stars appeared in the dark sky. She yawned, her jaws parting to reveal two rows of yellowed teeth, and blinked away her sleepy haze before standing to shake. In her brief slumberous reprieve, she was able to forget the unfortunate circumstances of her current situation. Orhan was gone, and she was left alone her with Koray, his mother and his sister. A sour scowl almost immediately etched its way onto the mare's otherwise soft features.
Still, the young mare racked her brain for any sign, or any reason, that Orhan would leave and leave her here. Nova was determined to make herself a permanent fixture of Orhan's herd, and thus, she had little time for anything else outside of trying to charm the buckskin stallion and his herd of mares. The jury was still out on how the steel-colored mare felt about Koray, Orhan's son who was indeed the reason why she had a home in the Desert after all. He was a moody stallion and seemed to have little interest in getting to know her anyway. Technically, Nova knew she belonged to Koray and not Orhan. But she operated as if that was not the case, for the sole reason of if there was ever a conflict between the two stallions (she was learning that because of Koray's naturally sour demeanor, there often was) that she could be absorbed into Orhan's fray almost seamlessly. If Koray got himself kicked out of the Desert again, Nova wanted to make damn sure she wouldn't be getting the boot with him.
Clearly that mattered very little any more.
This strategy was also a natural distraction from the family drama at that lingered in the back of her mind. Nova found herself frequently worrying about her mother who was recovering from her long captivity in the Lagoon. Nova couldn't think of her mother without feeling guilty now -- guilty for abandoning her when she did, guilty for never coming to see her once she returned to the islands. She'd traveled to the Dunes just once to see her in her current state. The palomino mare's beaten condition had shaken Nova so much that she'd broken down in tears right in front of her, and the rest of the Dunes herd. Nova also found herself thinking of Shamwari, that red stallion who showed up one day and was all buddy-buddy with Orhan, frequently. It was the first time she'd ever met her half-brother. And whatever feelings of ill will she had for him because of their past were beginning to melt away. This confused Nova completely. She wanted to hate him. She wanted to blame him for all the trouble he'd caused her and Evaline those years ago. But he had been so kind and so sincere. And so much had happened since then that it seemed silly not to unite behind her family.
Nova briefly thought about fleeing the Desert now and staying with her mother in the Dunes or with her brother in the Prairie. But her frantic thoughts were disturbed by a rustling in the oasis brush. The mare followed the sounds of the disturbance past the edge of the oasis into the cool sand. There she saw the slight silhouette of a mare she'd never met yet in person. Nova's ear lobes flicked forward and back as she listened to this stranger as she talked to herself. Eventually, Nova issued a nicker and pressed on to meet her. "A lion?" She asked, halting just a few feet away from her. "What's that?"
4 | Mare | Evaline x Valentine | Smoky Back Splash | 15 hh | © Vinyl |
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