Desert

The chocolate stallion had all but expected his approach to be met with fear. However the expression that crosses the pale face of the beautiful young mare is one that he is not familiar with. At least not from her. It causes his stride to stutter. Quickly he recovers his composure, shortening his gait to something more akin to a meandering walk. Thickly muscled neck arches as his proud head cocks to the side, fixing her firmly in his intense green gaze. Surrounded by his ghosts in the jungle, the wolf might have imagined that his mind once more played tricks on him. Those deep ocean blue eyes show no signs of the frightened mare he had once known. There is no horror on her finely chiseled face or disdain firmly etched into the pink curve of her lips. This mare could very well have been a different creature altogether save for the familiar tilt of her head and the sharp contrasting lines of color along the curve of her neck that he had once so tenderly traced many years ago. This was Calypso.

And yet the reservation in her gaze and the backwards turn of her ears gives him pause. There is no recognition in her face when he calls her by name, only contempt. He can see the muscles in her jaw contract as she hisses through clenched teeth. Dark ears flicker back and forth as he continues to blink at her from behind carmel colored tresses. What had happened to her in the months and years since Jabari took her away from Paradise? What had the damned red and white stallion done to his precious pearl? She had been so innocent and naive, so delicate and fragile that he often found himself wrapping the chains tighter around the beast in her company to keep from breaking that gift. To think now that as gently as he had been, as hard as he had fought to keep her to himself, that still the world had hardened her heart and spirit was almost enough to make the wolf whine. Almost.

’I am free to do as I please.’ the words seem foreign coming from her lips. Nonetheless, the wolf rises to the bait, drawn forward by the defiance and insubordination in the sound of her voice. Her long, golden neck arches in that achingly familiar way but instead of curling her head into the concave of his chest as she had once done, instead she lifts it to meet his gaze with hard eyes. ’I don’t know this Calypso.’ the statement is as sharp as if she had shouted it at him. His Calypso was gone. The creature who stood before him, dressed in her skin, was nothing more than the gods cruel chess piece to torment an already tormented soul. ’If you will excuse me.’ the words snap him from the recesses of his mind and the memories that lay there. The Calypso doppelganger starts forward in an attempt to brush past him and the nearness is too much for the beast to pass up.
Taking advantage of the nearness of her golden body, Rougaru snakes his muscular neck towards her. Ash dusted jaws part as blunt, yellowing teeth pinch her silken flesh, leaving his mark upon her hip as a reminder to her and any others that might dare to take his treasure. He had lost Calypso, but he would not lose her. Saucer-like hooves shuffle in the hard, sand covered earth as the broad stallion pivots his heels towards her, attempting to block her quick exit with his own hip. ”Oh no.” he murmurs, a wolfish grin on his whiskered lips as he steps into her, using the weight of his body to force her to change direction. ”I do not believe we are done here.” he adds, flicking his thick caramel and cream tail slowly against his heels, amusement gleaming. This could be fun.