†
His breath heaves as he stares out to sea, watching his family forced off his shore, heart thundering still in the shocking aftermath of the battle. He had bested Sigur∂r, but only a fool believes he will win every fight. Today he lost. Tomorrow, he may yet prevail. Knowing that doesn't make it any easier to watch Shiloh herded away. His heart twists in his chest and he coughs from the force of it, breathless and jangled with anxiety over her welfare.
The stallion had been a spitting image of his daughter— or, more fair to say, she of him. From the flaxen mane to the lambent eyes (the stare more telling than the color), there had been no mistaking the identity of the stallion who rushed upon his shores. He had not come for Paradise, no, nor for the sole remaining member of his herd— it is incomprehensible that he has chosen Shiloh. Did Rougaru think he must claim a hostage before attempting to reunite with Sonorae? He had not even stopped to talk.
Temblor tries to reorganize what he knows of the other stallion but can't wrap his head around what's just happened. He lost Shiloh, not only to a stallion not of Atlantis but to the very creature he'd not thought he'd have to protect her from, given Rougaru's absence in Paradise. Rougaru is an enemy of her family. Temblor's legs tremble as exhaustion wars with the waning rush of his adrenaline.
Too late, Sonorae bursts from the trees.
Her agony blossoms to life on her face: mouth ajar, throat working futilely, she stares after the horses bobbing further away before rushing headlong into the sea. It jars him into action, propelling him down the beach and into the surf— for what? To help her pursue the stallion who has so blatantly rejected her? it runs in the blood,
his own white-hot Temblor can't understand the circumstances: if Rougaru is not dead or disappeared, why would he leave Sonorae behind? She is the last of his herd left, as Temblor understands it, loyal enough to stay in the jungle despite a stranger's claim on it just in case, expressing in that action a staunch optimism that someday Rougaru will return, and she will be here to witness it.
Temblor's heart swells for her, beating high in his chest and searing blood through his veins. All this time she has waited, only to be spurned, rejected, dismissed— and much like during his encounter with Annubis, Temblor feels contempt curl his lip for this stallion held on so high a pedestal he hasn't a glance to waste for those who support it from below.
The tide has numbed him to the knees by the time Sonorae relents to the inexhaustible rejection of the waves. They rebuff her, washing her back onto Paradise's shores where she crumples, hopeless, in the sand. His bafflement cannot possibly compare to the incomprehension she must be feeling. Unless— was her love unrequited? Her loyalty unexpressed, her attachment to Rougaru constructed entirely within her own mind?
He leaves his thoughts in the shallows as he splashes out of the ocean. One of his herd may be beyond his reach, but there is one left he may yet help, and he will not abandon her like so many have before.
"Sonorae," he says gently, dropping his head to quest gently toward her, his breath soft between her ears.
TEMBLOR
& swallows you whole
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