ORHAN
For a moment after their interaction, father and son stared at each other. There was nothing in Koray's face that indicated he had picked up on Orhan's subtle cue, and it hurt Orhan a little to hear his son accept them back into the Desert herd in such an impersonal way. By asking permission for them to stay, Orhan had hoped he was making it clear that he would not take back control of the Desert right away, as they had agreed prior to his trek - instead, he was allowing his son to keep his title. He was recognizing Koray as leader by playing at being humble, and had hoped that he would at least see a spark of pride or surprise in his son's eyes.
Instead, it was as though Koray had never intended to give the Desert back at all. He had not even offered them a welcome. But then, Orhan tended to overthink things; silently he hoped that that was the case here.
Finally Koray broke the silence. "Let me lead you back to the oasis," he said, making to turn back the way he came, but Orhan stopped him.
"No, that's alright. A'idah and I can find our own way back. You go ahead; we have some catching-up to do." Orhan watched his son's eyes flick between them with uncertainty for a moment.
"Fine," Koray said, and what left his mouth next was something Orhan could not have anticipated. "But you should know that Evren is gone now too. I thought you should hear before you made yourself comfortable." With a swish of his russet tail, the perlino stallion turned and left.
Orhan felt a wave of dread wash over him. His eyes dropped to the sands for a moment, and when he looked back up at A'idah his expression was grim. "My only son, Koray. He has a way with discretion, as you can see. Evren is one of my grown daughters. She's always been adventurous and somewhat impulsive, so I had a feeling this would happen someday. I trust her to take care of herself, however. I'm sure she will be back once she's had her fill of the outside world."
He wet his mouth and hesitated before continuing on, all the joy gone from his face. "I suppose now's the time to tell you that I've been away from the Desert for several months. A few family members disappeared out of the blue, so I've been searching for them - to no avail, as you can see."
ARABIAN/AKHAL-TEKE/MUSTANG; 15’1HH; BUCKSKIN; 12 |