Common

The silence that surrounds Crow is more deafening than the cries of the birds, but still, it does not stir the mare. Though she sleeps, her conscious is familiar with the sound of foot fall on sand verses a predator, not that she would awaken for either. Let them have their meal, or perhaps a kind or vicious soul (perhaps both?) would end her suffering with a strike that would be given in mercy. Yet, nothing happens. The sun that had been so warm upon her salt burned face was suddenly gone, the gentle embrace of shade giving her some form of relief.


Awaken a feminine voice demands, but Crow does not. Death does not come for you yet, but didn’t it? She waited with open arms for the reaper to take her from this wounded shell and into whatever awaited her beyond. But no matter how badly she wished it, Death did not come. Slowly, the ebony mare pried open her eyes once again. Peering up at the mare that had given her shade, stood guard as she rested, and now demanded she rise. The authority in her tone had been commanding, demanding, and it begged to be announced as a Queen. When Crow had left the Islands, there had been no such thing as a mare owning a territory. What a strange world she had returned too. Soon, she would find out what sort of power she could have. All she had to do was embrace life, rather than death.


Pushing herself upright, Crow tucked her legs beneath her as she lay there trying to grasp her bearings once more. It was hard. Everything was hard. From holding open her eyes, to holding up her head. The wheeze in her lungs, the tremor in her body; the weakness that grasped her now enough to make her give up again, if it did not make her angry.


Lifting her eyes, she looked inland for the first time. Though she didn’t know exactly where she was, it was enough she realized she was in the Commons. A sneer tugged at her lips upon the realization, her memories briefly flickering to the Lagoon and the stallion that had forced her there. His name…. what had been his name? Surely he did not haunt that wretched place anymore. Floyd. If she were to find him now, she would certainly be nothing like the young filly he had force into the brotherhood’s clutches.


“The Falls….” the mare suddenly croaked. If there was anything that would help her, it would be a long cold drink to help chase away the dehydration that was clearly taking its affects on her. A bath to wash away the salt water burning her hide would also help to replenish her strength. Without waiting to see if the mare understood her own command, Crow once again attempted to rise. Her legs shaky and looking like a new born foal, Crow stumbled to the side, her fate resting with the stranger whether she caught Crow and braced her up or let her fall once again to her demise.
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