I would honestly love you now,
But I would lovingly let you down.
Days passed, then weeks, and the painted stallion couldn't find signs of the red mute stallion anywhere. The few mares that lingered within his keep, too, were missing, their scents gone stale among the evergreen and pine leaves. But still, the sun rose each day, and with it, the rest of the mountain-home inhabitants, from the deer to the loin to the insects. The land moved on without them.
It didn't take long for Jabari to feel, well, lonely. He couldn't shake this sadly familiar sense of abandonment. The painted son of Shamwari had settled on the Ridge because there was just something about Hades, something about his good nature, that made him feel at home here. He felt like he could start over and build something new. But perhaps he deserved this. That was the only conclusion he could come to. There was no other real answer.
His blue eyes glazed over as his pink lips nibbled at the green offerings in a low-lying valley, enjoying the cool evening air and stars overhead. Soon, he knew, others would come to claim this territory. Either that, or the silver-bay menace next door would send one of his cronies to stake out the place. Jabari knew his days here were numbered. It wasn't safe, and he had no reason to defend the Ridge on behalf of Hades, if he was indeed, never coming back.
One chestnut ear flicked forward at the sound of a twig snap, and then a distant rustle within the trees. He lifted his two-toned head from grazing, his icy eyes peering into the darkness of the night. His fair nostrils flared as he tested the crisp air, finding nodes of strangers. He swallowed hard and set out to investigate, lingering among the confines of the woods once he heard two strangers speaking.
He couldn't gather much of what they were saying from this distance, but both of them smelled of Atlantis. The splashed mare seemed vaguely familiar. Neither approached the other with any defensiveness, and after a few more moments of thought, Jabari emerged from the brush.
He nickered lowly, in a half-hearted attempt to draw attention to himself, but kept his distance.
"If it's Hades you're after, or Faolain even... I'm afraid they're no longer here."
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