Common

The bitterness of her own liberation is a constant hammering reminder of the complications forsaken and abandoned as she fled. Though she does not know the destructive reach of flames - only the gentlest of crackling beside a well-managed campfire - she understands too keenly the casualties of war and the emotions that never cease their assault upon already downtrodden souls. The battle culminated in torturous loss for her as well - though her involvement in the combat has ended, the forfeiture for her freedom came at the cost of her peace. Within her mind remains the haunting memories, the ghosts if you will, of expectations unmet and the faces comrades refuses to rest. Every day she wanders farther from the tumultuous events of an unhappy past, yet never is she closer to shirking the shroud of burdensome remembrance.

The stallion's thought during his own plight is one that echoed within her own heart for a time that seemed infinite. The cessation of battle was but an empty promise upon a silver lining that never proved truthful. The ebony mare had absconded when her own mental decline nosedived into the most bottomless of pits. The man's journey was one full of unforgiving waves and the fighting of the deathly fingers of undertows circulating beneath the ocean's surface. Her own excursion started with the most dreadful adornments - things humans called tack - flapping like a deranged bird against her ribcage, nape, and upon her back. The less volatile jewelry she was bequeathed still jingles a soft merry tune with every step she takes. Golden bands bedazzle her ear, placed as a marker, along with those woven into her raven mane. Claimed by the hands of humans she once was, and never will she be content as simple property again.

Explosions - deafening and rapid - had driven her to a maddeningly swift exit. She too swam through the salty waters, almost dragged beneath by the weight of the ornaments she carried. When she finally was able to rid herself of the attachments, she had been stranded on an island much smaller than this. For once fate had opted to smile upon her shadowed form, allowing the salt from the ocean's brew to weaken and fissure the leather. With some cajoling she had been able to remove the devices that continued to deem her captive. When she was finally restored to her former glory to the extent that she could, she kept moving - already veiled in the shame of desertion, she would not be caught with ease.

Finally she came upon a land that lacked the dreaded scent of mankind, and she had chosen to begin anew. The idea of a new beginning is the sole reason she stayed among this chain of islands. Never mind the fact that her muscular frame was beyond exhaustion or that she had grown weary of wandering aimlessly. Perhaps those minor inconveniences explain the reasoning behind why she has been watching the slumbering brute. She has overstayed her welcome by mere moments as he awakens, beckoning her from her shelter with a weary resolution to his words. For a brief moment she considers simply turning around and letting him squander away on the beach in loneliness. Instead, quite unlike herself, she steps into his small sanctuary and directly into a conversation that she will likely regret.

Long legs propel forth her lithe body, gracefully maneuvering her frame cautiously through the foliage. Her movements are not dissimilar to a large cat, reproachful yet intent on their mission. She comes to a stop a couple horse links away as her stark amber eyes, almost yellow, take stock of him. He is a behemoth, more massive than she in build and most likely in height as well. Eyes dart quickly, assessing, making mental notes of the brute. His outward fatigue matches the weariness within her mind, causing her to almost feel a sliver of remorse for interrupting his nap. With her new proximity to the stranger and the shifting of the wind, she catches the wafting scent of the ocean's waters upon his skin. Yet another new face in a fairly new place. His question still lingers within her ears, and she goes deathly still as she contemplates her reply. Her gaze latches onto his, and what could possibly be the beginning of a smirk crosses her lips for but a moment. "Nothing." The word falls, reverberating in the silence between them. Her dark colored hide almost glimmers in the patched sunlight, yet the elongated silvery scars across her body shine the brightest.