Time does not pass the same way for Echo as it does for others, and so the blind mare did not know how long she and her boy had been alone when she woke, her heightened senses informing her that someone was nearby. By sound alone, she discerned that there was a lone horse approaching, one who’d recently come from the sea. The real question was whether they were friend or foe? Her breath quickening in her chest, Echo nudged at the colt beside her, adjusting her position to shield her precious son with her body,
just in case.
“Who’s there?” she called out, mustering up what little boldness she had. The horse’s scent was muddled beneath the tang of salt, caught between layers of other equines.
Even before her new companion spoke, his voice a deep rumble in the relative stillness, Echo had determined that the one who’d approached was a stallion, if the traces of the musk lingering in the air between them indeed belonged to him. Unsure of his intentions, Echo turned her ears back, and lifted her muzzle a little higher, moving to face the stallion’s general position. The blind bay mare hesitated a moment before answering his question.
“I’m trying,” the words slipped out, her voice a little fragile. As if fearing the stallion would sense additional weakness in her, Echo straightened a little.
“My family… I was in the forest with them. They’ll come for me.”
Little Eastwise had been peering at the large grey stallion from where he stood pressed close to his mother’s shoulder. He tipped his head to the side, wrinkling his pink nose as he scented the air, sneezing when he inhaled too deeply. With a snort, he stepped away from his mother and towards the grey stallion. He had one thing that his mother did not – the chance to observe the experienced male’s posture. The colt was quickly learning that bodies had a language all of their own. And as far as he could tell, this stranger was not the same as the mare who looked so much like Rowena. She had been angry and loud in her movements when she’d hurt his mother. But this pale stallion, he didn’t look like he wanted to hurt him or his mother.
“East!” Echo exclaimed in concern when she felt her son slip away from her, taking a step after him, her muzzle lowering as she sought the familiar warmth and scent of her child. He came drifting back to her, bumping his tiny muzzle to hers, huffing gently to reassure her. Echo sighed in relief, a smile spreading across her muzzle. Eastwise, she loved him wholeheartedly, and bore no ill will toward him for the harm his unknown father had done to her.
“I don’t even know what they’re fighting for,” Echo found herself murmuring aloud. Again, she turned her ears back, this time in shyness, and hoped that her as-yet unnamed companion did not deem her ignorant for admitting such a thing.
There were things that she would never know. The bay sabino mare would forever walk in darkness, and be reliant all her life. She was well aware of her shortcomings, and had come to terms with the fact that she’d never amount to anything grand. This life, what she had now right beside her, was more than enough for her. Though he was young yet, Eastwise already looked after her in a way, as if sensing in his youthful innocence that Echo needed more than others did. Someone to be her eyes for her. And, taking her lead from her boy, the mare relaxed a little.
“I’m Echo,” she said gently, after several moments of silence.
And then another question, this one spoken softer than her first words, but her tone carried deeper apprehension.
“Are you here to hurt us?” She still felt the dull aching throb where that unknown mare had struck her, shouting things that Echo didn’t understand. She tried to stifle a sob of fear and despair, overcome suddenly by the knowledge of how helpless she was, and by extension, her beloved son. Her delicate face, with its crooked blaze, crumpled with emotion.
“Please, I don’t understand. I – they’ve done nothing wrong, and my boy, I beg you, don’t hurt him.”