The golden, shifting backs of the dunes pitched and rolled like the waves of the sea, stretching endlessly toward the horizon. Heat waves inched lazily toward the sun, curling and twisting their slender not-there bodies around each other as they made their ascent into the heavens, the only moving things for miles. Beneath the high-noon sun, time seemed to slow to a crawl. The only respite came from the few dunes high enough to make shadows and the occasion gust of cool wind from the ocean.

From a distance they watched the intruder, eyeing the dark speck that picked its way carefully through their home. An occasional twitch of muscles belied their interest in the stranger; the shifting of weight as a head was raised and eyes were narrowed, the flicking of long, dark-capped ears, the brush of golden body against golden body as they murmured quietly to one another at yet another trespasser. Their interest grew as the speck stopped, settling comfortably atop one of the distant dunes.

“ Yine başka bir kapımızın önünde üzerinde yürümek geldi ki.”
“ Evet, ben çok korkuyorum, tatlım. Gidelim mi?”

With that final soft murmur of tangled, exotic words, they again explode from their perch.

Their golden, metallic hides glisten beneath the oppressive rays of the sun, racing each other and their shadows over the cascading mounds of sand that separate them from their latest visitor. Occasionally one or the other would slow, allowing their counterpart to race ahead, before a mad dash would bring them barrel to barrel, chest to chest, with their strangely similar rumbles of laughter echoing across the stillness of their home.

As they near their target, they slow as one, long legs devouring the sands ahead of them in a matched, long-strided trot. Their dark tails were held high, waving as banners in the wind, and their eyes shone brightly against their golden cheeks as they finally crest the dune that served as a perch to their guest. As they had with the black, fine-boned mare before her, they survey the strange, foreign mare openly and in careful silence. They murmur quietly to one another in their native tongue, eyes darting occasionally to the bay mare before they straighten and turn their heads so they are mirrored images of one another, standing at attention, and wearing similar expressions of masked amusement.

“Welcome to the Dunes, gezgin,” spoke the female, nudging her companion subtley with her shoulder, to which he responded by sauntering forward and circling the bay mare. He paused next to her, turning his face to hers as his own voice, only a pitch or two deeper than the female’s, rumbled from his chest.

“You will make a lovely addition to our home.” He smiled benignly, offering his muzzle carefully in greeting. His dark eyes were unreadable, as was the pair’s shared expression as he pulled away and slowly sauntered back to stand by his counterpart. They allowed the knowledge of the mare’s new situation to sink in for a moment or two in silence before the female’s smoky, exotic voice curled from her lips again.

“I am Sekhet, and my mate is Sutekh. And you are?”

---

sekhet & sutekh
mare. akhal-teke. buckskin. fifteen-three. seven.
stallion. akhal-teke. buckskin. sixteen-zero. six.
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