It was strange, the way that seasons passed, altering the shape and texture of the world without really changing anything at all. It had been years since Vex had last caught scent of the witch that had birthed and abandoned her, and yet the slightest hint of Vivienne's scent had the sooty mare's stomach curling in on itself.
She had oft imagined the things she might say if ever confronted with the witch's face, but all of her carefully planned insults and arguments felt very far away, and Vex just felt... tired.
Instead of facing her demon, she turned away, heart heavy. Everything to the west of where she stood threatened to deliver her right back into her mother's arms, and so she went east instead, skirting the dangerous southern edge of the Commons where meadow threatened to give way to swamp, and kept going until the ocean met her. There were no herds in this direction, she knew. Which meant there was less of a chance anyone would come across her and put an end to her wandering ways.
Once upon a time, that was what she had wanted. As a young girl, having been raised with the lessons imprinted on her by her dam, Vex had wanted nothing more than to find a herd and a stallion to bend to her will. When the only interested party at the time had been the Peak, she'd been deflated. She hadn't imagined herself a warrior then, and really did not now, either. She had not spent any amount of time honing the lithe desert-build she carried apart from carving furrows into the Crossing with her endless wandering.
Sighing, the slender mare found a quiet spot beside a bare-limbed tree and rested her shoulder against it. Someday soon she would need to decide what the future held. Even if she never did become the tempting vixen that Vivienne had been trying to make her, perhaps she could at least find
something in this world to look forward to. Her gaze drifted toward the ocean, fixing on the horizon while life continued on around her.
Mare Teke Mutt Silver Bay* Roan Overo 15.3hh ışıksız x Vivienne