Common

There aren’t many reasons for her to come to the commons.

There is only one, now that she thinks of it. Just one reason she scours the sand and waves for the parting souls ferried from their depths.

Normally she would not bother two women talking calmly to each other, she wouldn’t even pass them a second glance, but she watches them for awhile before they are approached by a desert bred stallion. Bahadir. Her tail lashes in anger, the fury written on the lines of her hardened face before she snakes closer to the trio, her steps measured and calculated.

She expects all kinds of things from him but to her surprise, it is the woman who has laid claim on the girl. Amduat’s eyes narrow in contempt.

She, most of all, should know that it is unkind to force another. She, a queen in her own right, should know that there is nothing good to come of unhappy subjects. She should know how it feels to have teeth on her skin, to feel the heat of humiliation rise inside of you when you have your choices cut from you.

Because he stole them from me that is how and then he lost me to another stallion most likely on purpose cause he hated that I was his equal.

“You are spreading hatred because your heart is too full of it to see clearly. Let the girl choose for herself.” She is not much shorter than the buckskin queen, but she lifts her head so she meets her eyes, her curled ears press against the back of her skull and her teeth bared. “Amduat, of the Peak.”