Common

“It’s okay,” the red-mantled mare murmured in reply to the golden stranger’s heartfelt words. Even as she spoke them, Charybdis felt that her own voice sounded hollow, and with a small shake of her head, the half-blind woman sought to amend her answer. “In time, it’ll be okay.” There, that was much more of an honest reply, and a tired smile curled softly at the corners of her lips, satisfied. Then again, they weren’t exactly strangers either, for Charybdis firmly believed she’d been sent here to find this wandering soul, to bring her home.

But, she had yet to ask the golden mare her name. “I am called Charybdis. What are you called?” The question was asked softly, and not before she gave her own name. And when the other mare did give her name, the smile returned and this time, it remained. Humming deep in her chest, Charybdis reached for Saoirse, and brushed her muzzle affectionately across the younger mare’s shoulder. “Come, Saoirse, let’s go ‘ome.” Charybdis then turned and led her companion back the way she’d come, moving with a quiet confidence. It was just as well, really, that she’d happened across the golden mare now, given that winter was on its way, and the ocean would soon become wilder than ever. “Stay close to me when we go into de sea. ‘Er ‘as a way of taking you where ’er want, and not always where you want.” She did not say this to frighten her new friend, but to warn her, because, more than anyone, Charybdis knew how treacherous even the straits could be.

But, she did not want to turn Saoirse off entirely, especially because of what the golden mare represented to her - a fragment of the family Charybdis had lost - all the more precious because of how little remained for the mare who had the salt of the sea in her veins, and the rhythm of the tides in every beat of her heart. “If we stay together, Saoirse, I believe we will be okay.” And when Saoirse voices her offer, Charybdis stopped for a moment in her leading, to turn and look at her properly. There were no words to convey just how moved Charybdis felt by what might, to anyone else, be a small thing. For someone who felt as they had so little left in life, the kindness in Saoirse’s voice was everything. “I would like that very much,” Charybdis replied, her voice hoarser than usual, rough with emotion.

And she led Saoirse to the sea, where the pair waited for a break in the waves, before they made their way back to the Ridge, to the place that meant home.