As they crest the sandy hills and the oasis is unveiled before them, Evren's heart jumps into her mouth. Her mind registers a million things at once: the memory of her father lying dead at Koray's hooves, Koray lying dead at her own hooves, Evren washing her bloody hooves in sea water, Evren's stillborn foal lying dead in the sand, her and Han arguing just before she abandoned him - all of which had happened in this very area or just a short walk away - and then, back in the present, the vulture overhead circling lower and lower over the oasis...
"Han," Evren whispers fearfully. She is sweating, her pace quickening, her movements stiffening. Persephone is all but forgotten beside her when Evren spies the horse reclined in the shade at the water's edge. Then she is off, sprinting across the sandy ground, kicking up dust in her wake. "Han!"
---
Han opens their eyes. They had dozed off after their earlier breakdown, exhausted as they were by the swim here and the stress of their situation. The heat, too, seems to sap the very energy from their bones, and Han has wondered more than once how on earth his mother and her family had ever lived here.
It is near evening now, and the sun is low in the clear blue sky, casting golden light across the water of the oasis and through the wispy leaves of the trees overhead. A shaft of light stretches across the ground like a path, and at the end of this path, atop the sandy hills that overlook the oasis, appear two horses.
Their mother cries their name and gallops toward them, closely followed by an unfamiliar mare. Uncomfortable as they are around strangers, Han is too relieved by Evren's appearance to feel self-conscious. They jump to their feet and run to her, tears flying from their eyes, and they all but collide with Evren, draping their neck over hers, then rubbing their face into her shoulder, sobbing freely.
"I'm so sorry," Han says, their voice muffled by Evren's body.
"Me too, oh God, me too," says Evren, and pulls away to look at them, tears in her tired eyes. "I should never have left you. Never, never, never. That was so wrong of me." She shakes her head, her expression earnest, her words low and fast.. I just panicked. I don't know what came over me. I just couldn't face it again. But I'm here now. I'm here. Are you okay?"
Han nods and they embrace again, and stay there for several long moments while Han gets the last of their feeble sobs out, though the heat makes the proximity uncomfortable. When finally Han pulls away, they shoot a curious glance at the mare who had arrived with their mother. Evren follows Han's line of sight and smiles, stepping backward to make room for the mare.
"Han, this is Persephone, a good friend of mine. Her home is the first place I went when I left. Sephy, this is my --" Evren pauses, shooting a glance at Han, to which Han responds with a subtle shake of the head, "--this is my child, Han."
1; mutt; sooty buckskin; 16.2hh wfg
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