Common

For the span of countless years Conquistador had been content - no, complete. Though they wandered with neither home nor purpose, the remnants of the stallion's family surrounded him, and that was more than he'd once dared to dream. In the fullness of his heart, the tawny palomino didn't seem to notice that there was one among them who did not share in his joy. That all he possessed of his brother was an animate shell. Or perhaps it was simply that it didn't matter - perhaps, so long as Rade breathed and walked beside him, the shell was enough.

Until one day, his older brother was abruptly gone, shattering the fragile world that Conquistador had built in an instant.

In truth, the stallion had known that Rade's departure was inevitable, though his heart had sought to deny it. Leto's arrival and integration into their band had restored a small measure of the man that Conquistador had once known. Suddenly the familiar intensity had returned to Rade's expression, and his amber eyes - though more distant than ever - held something more than emptiness in their depths. More than once the younger stallion had met that gaze and recalled with a shudder the impact of his brother's hooves striking the bone cage of his ribs. It was the fervent desperation of a beast that had been cornered but was determined to break free from its imprisonment - whatever the cost.

And so Rade had. In the frantic search that had followed Leto's disappearance, the roan slipped away. By then Sylke was well along in her pregnancy, a state that hindered the pair's progress as Conquistador sought to follow the trail that his brother had left. Fortunately, by the time the trail went cold, the direction it had been heading in left the tawny stallion with little doubt about their destination. The islands. Rade would return there and revert to his old ways - and in doing so, would court his own death. The thought of losing his brother was unbearable; Conquistador had already lost his sire, his dam, and countless others. Xina, Sahin, Dia, Crow... His heart was already riddled with holes - the addition of another would surely cause it to collapse.

Of course, Sylke refused to be left behind, even when Conquistador strove to explain the element of danger that lay ahead of them. Crossing the sea was treacherous enough for those unburdened by the bulk of an almost-fully-developed foal, and it terrified the stallion to think that both his beloved and their child might perish. But a small part of him was also grateful that he would not have to face the trials ahead without the blue mare at his side. And when they both arrived safe on the Crossing's western shore, Conquistador was able to breathe a little easier, even knowing that what lay behind them might well be the easiest part of their journey.

The flat expanse of the common ground before the brown-gold stallion was familiar - only the individuals that filled it were not. The burnished color of his brother's coat was not apparent, so Conquistador continued inland, brown eyes vigilant and wary as he turned Sylke toward the south, where the Lagoon lay. In his experience, any mare who wandered here was vulnerable to the whims of the stallions who made their homes on the outlying islands. The hope was that his presence would dissuade any would-be captors from attempting to impose their will on his mate.

Never for a moment would Conquistador have suspected that his own freedom might be in just as much peril.