R H A E L L A


No.

Such a simple response: so practical and efficient. She could hardly read any emotion in the single word, which, while perhaps frustrating to any other equine, was nothing but pleasing to Rhaella's ears. Her family had often complained to her that she was too quick-tempered, too prone to instinct, flights of fancy, and sudden explosions of emotion. In her culture, tranquility, thinking before one spoke, was highly revered.

Thus, in this single, unemotive word that Dante had spoken, any premonitions Rhaella had had about him being a demon were long gone. Suddenly, she admired him, admired his ability to move past their mishap with such grace. In those moments in which they stood side-by-side on the dimly-lit beach watching the stranger in the distance, she fancied that she had known him for a long time.

But of course, she was just letting her whims get the better of her yet again. Silly Rhaella.

Despite the fire in her green eyes, Rhaella stood with a neutral stance: neither threatening nor grovelling. She could not help but notice that the mare who approached them, with her bold markings, strode with an equally bold air of confidence despite her dishevelled appearance. Of course, Rhaella was not much better: her own coat was still slick with damp and her blonde tail hung limply from her haunches. But she could not have known from their differences in self-composure that both of them happened to be in the same boat.

”Rhaella, Aeros guide you,” the burnished chestnut mare replied with a stiff bob of her head. She glanced briefly at Dante as she did so, aware that this was the first time he had heard her name as well. She noticed then a strange milkiness to his eye that she had not, in her previous frazzled state of mind, noticed.

Blind? she mused, though she concluded that he could not have been fully handicapped, else he would not have been able to ease the tension of their confrontation with the physical token of peace he had offered her. Abruptly, Rhaella looked away, almost embarrassed for Dante's sake.



mare : 3 : sooty flaxen chestnut sabino (ref) : saddlebred mix : 15hh
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