of course i was a f r a i d
The initial tensions over, Vesti seemed to relax. She let her head drop a bit and examined the two other equines in the area. Yes, the black mare she had avoided because, well, Vesti had been avoiding people. There was no one she was interested in seeing in the depression before when she had nearly thrown herself back into the Sea. Only the Voice had been keeping her company and she had tried to drown it out. Now, she was here and her aim seemed, well, shoddy.
El Aran. The famous black mare of the Desert. Vesti had never known her name, but she had known the scent. The one constant in her memory of the last few years. Now she had a name. She looked across the way then back at the stallion who had come to stand next to her. Yes, he had a patchy coat and she wondered if he needed help relieving him of that.
“I don’t know if you never saw me,” Vesti began.
“But I didn’t want to be seen.” That was the truth. After Grai and Kel had turned to the Sea to seek their fortunes on other shores, Vesti had retreated. Her purpose served, she had left the Dunes and the emptiness of Salem called to her. She had found herself in lands abandoned and seeming to avoid contact in general. A creature of desert wind and Voice is what she had become.
We became sick of it, the Voice commented.
So, you going to tell him that?
That was when Orhan asked the question of the age. Why hadn’t she returned to the Dunes? The answer was simple.
Oh, now you shut up? Really? Come on, just lay it all on the line already.
“Honestly,” Vesti began.
“Because I knew El Aran would be here and I was tired of being lonely. The Dunes are fairly empty and have been since Badr left…” And there were too many bad memories there.