Kiraz
She moves quietly through the water, amber body drenched and darkened to a rusty red. The sun is setting rapidly behind a tattered curtain of dark clouds, sending splashes of fire across the irritable waves, and it makes Kiraz nervous. She is terribly afraid of the dark.
Her hip twinges as she kicks through the murky water, fighting off the panic rising in her throat. The salt water is rough and stinging in her nostrils and mouth, but despite her best attempts to keep her head above the waves, she keeps bobbing under. She is not strong enough to be doing this, and it’s a miracle she has even made it this far alive, but she can’t think about that now.
The darkness becomes overwhelming. The sky is pregnant but releases no rain, the clouds only serving to cover up the moon. Kiraz is enveloped in inky blackness, and the panic she has fought so hard to contain finally blossoms in her chest.
Kiraz thrashes against the water, fighting it now despite no knowledge of land anywhere nearby. She is going nowhere fast, and her violence only causes the waves to pull her under, over and over again. She swallows seawater and breathes it into her lungs, pushing her even further away from rationality, worsening the cycle of thrashing and sinking. Eventually, she blacks out, and her journey calms with her body’s stillness, though she is not awake to appreciate it.
The drenched mare does not wake up when the sea finally spits her out. The water has worked its way out of her lungs by the time the sun rises, and she can hear others nearby, but they only provoke a tired groan from the red ‘Teke. She remains still.