They had chased her to the ends of the earth like hounds chasing a fox. The red desert dunes had given way to the pale golden sands of an unnamed beach and then came the flurry of swirling deep blue and stark unyielding white. The jaws of the ocean had eaten her whole, dragging her down and spitting her out when it was finally finished with ravished body. She coughed and spluttered, her hooves digging and sinking through the wet sand for some kind of purchase. The whites of her eyes plead with the ocean behind her to leave her be, to not take her back. ”Sana yalvarıyorum”, she cried. Please, do not take her again.

Her breaths come in ragged gasps, her lungs and bones burning like fire with the strain. She struggled for what seemed like forever until finally the sand began to hold firmer. She managed a step, and then another until she found herself further inland, the hard sand starting to turn to soft rolling dunes. A harsh wind, whipped around her, plastering her sand and sea soaked tresses to her sooty coloured skin. A layer of red desert sand dusted her damp hide and stung her eyes but she continued. She had no idea where she was going, but if she was going to die, she resolved that she would do it as far from the swirling sea as possible.

Hours passed until she found an oasis, or at least, she thought it was an oasis. By this point the world was just a blur of different shades of orange and red. She couldn’t tell if it was just the sand storm or if it was her vision that had given in. Perhaps it was both. A few dark shapes wavered in front of her, trees? She wondered. She couldn’t be sure.

She thought she heard something but perhaps it was just her imagination. Did it even matter anymore?

15.1HH SOOTY PALOMINO RABICANO
AKHAL-TEKE MARE