Şahin felt better than he had in a long time. He knew it was due to the arrival of Xina and Mera, but most especially because of his time with the black mare at the Crossing. Their brief game and grooming had revived him as only physical contact could, and he swam the ocean between islands now on his way back to Paradise. For the first time he did not dread the return, for even if his territory was mostly devoid of other life, he did not feel so pessimistic anymore. Hope was a powerful thing.

Atlantis loomed before him, and as he drew nearer to the beach of his home he made out the form of a horse. Even from his distance he could see the horse was too tall to be Mera, and as he drew nearer he could see the sunwashed stranger was pale all the way down to their hooves and thus could not be Xina, either. Şahin emerged from the ocean, sleek as a seal, and whinnied a greeting to the newcomer. He made his way toward the other horse and flared his nostrils appreciatively: a mare stood on his beach.

“Hello,” he greeted her, and stopped a couple of feet away. “Drop by to see the sunset? There’s nowhere better,” he said, and grinned. Not entirely true— he’d heard it was a fantastic spectacle near the Peak’s summit, and there were probably other places where the view was just as good. But Paradise was his home, and he was allowed to have more than a little bias when it came to sunrise and sunset. The land seemed to exist solely for viewing the natural rhythms of the universe.