Common

The rocking of the ship made her sick. The waves that sloshed and tossed the traveling vessel to and fro were about to reach their limit with the silently fuming mare. At least her head was securely tied to the post in the far too tiny stall they’d shoved her in or else she would have made quick work of the metal clasp holding her door closed. Despite these unfortunate things, at least these stupid humans had the right mind to put her across from her sister, the pair never far from each other ever since birth. Indra pulls at her ropes that painfully tug her back but she is persistent to lay it over the top of her door, huffing at the space she wishes to close between them. She hadn’t made such a fuss at being separated to have a couple feet of space further irk her ire.

“Ocalea,” Indra’s rough voice rumbles out to her sister, ignoring the shushing breathes of the other slumbering ponies and whatever else had been sold at the auction, ears leaning forwards to catch her sister’s softer toned voice that would surely calm the raging storm inside the mare. Yet as she waits is when the ominous creaking of the boat becomes too much, the sounds she’d been trying to ignore for her fear of the water and boats themselves, a terrible crunching noise fills the quiet and soon their rocking world becomes a blaze of frightened voices calling to each other and the eerie glow of fire from broken lamps that had been hung too close to the hay.

Oblivious to her sister’s struggle Indra throws her neck forward, the rope latched around her face pulling tight and her air is cut off for a few minor seconds until it gives way and she can breathe, gulping down air and further throwing herself forward just as the boat does as well giving her the momentum needed to hit the door with both front hooves and feel the old wood give way in splinters. Her success is short-lived by the sound of rushing water, her hooves now splashing in her very fear but she pushes it back to focus on her sister, determined to get to her and free her as well or else they’d go down with the ship.

It’s hard to maneuver in the ally way, screaming her frustration at those that collide with her body and try to sway her from her path, her pale figure soaked with sweat as she fights with her sister’s door again and again with frantic kicks. The water is rising, quenching the fire but that was not the biggest danger as Indra’s eyes catch onto Ocalea’s own rope and is desperately calling to her sister to pull at it, her voice becoming lost in the rush of the rapids that pull her under with the rest of the ship but thankfully whatever the ship had crashed into had managed to rip off the front mast where they’d been underneath so Indra let’s her body get carried out through the hole all while holding her breath until her vision goes dark and she is cast into oblivion.

Indra has no idea for how long she was lost in the deep, lost to her frantic thoughts of never seeing her sister again, and just how long she was able to hold her breath when her legs surge upwards and her face breaches the surface to a dull gray sky. The storm has passed, and when she turns her head to look around her all she can see is the aftermath of it all bobbing in the waters with her. Her stomach feels as though ice has gripped it, urging her to swim to the large island ahead. Even as she swims she calls to her other half, her voice hoarse from the salt water she’d inhaled, dragging her ropes up the sandy beach in the hopes her sister was there. Ship debris littered the beach, void of any signs of life until her pale eyes found a familiar heap of flesh cast out onto the sands, still partially in the surf.

“Ocalea!,” there is hope and happiness in her voice, tripping over herself and the rope that had managed to wrap itself around her in her haste. She falls to the ground at her sister’s side, pushing her damp nose into the wet tassels of mane adorning her neck and breathing in her still alive scent and watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest. Indra had never been one for emotions but when it came to her family she’d give them her all.

Indra