Common

No, silly, sing-songed a voice behind her, followed by a peal of laughter. Esmeray turned, the dream world overly saturated in color, brightened by the joy of the moment. Beside her, her sister froliced, bottlebrush tail held aloft as they danced beside each other across the Dunes. I won't leave you, she promised, we'll be together forever.

The painted mare woke with an ache in her chest that no amount of early morning sun could lift. She sighed and rested for a moment longer, letting her mind adjust to the early hour and the memory of where she was, and why she was here. It had been late in the evening when Esmeray had arrived on the Crossing, and well past the midnight hour by the time she'd reached the edge of what she assumed to be the Commons. Instead of trying to blunder through it blindly, guided only by the light of a crescent moon, she'd curled up at the border instead and captured what fitful sleep she could find.

Now, though, there was nothing in between her and the future she tentatively wanted for herself and so with a soft frown, the painted mare rose to her feet, stretched, and shook herself off. She wasn't a vain creature, but she took the time this morning to straighten her mane and tail, and to rub the late-spring mud from her hocks before she began her nervous march into the Commons.

For years, Esmeray had drifted among the herds of Salem as an unattached wanderer. Initially, she had been searching for her sister, then for the rest of her family, and then she had stayed because that was what she knew. The thought of going home to the Cove empty-handed was sobering, and so she had avoided it until her parents had ended up on Salem anyway. With that confession out of the way, she had no other excuses as to why she was avoiding putting down real roots of her own. She'd been through and seen enough to know how to keep herself safe, and she'd wanted this for long enough that she knew it was the right decision... And yet, her hooves wavered at the border and she paused in that strange no-man's land, her lips curled into a worried frown.

What if she was wrong?