Assumptions. Everyone made them with resounding frequency, from the oldest stallions to the youngest fillies. Maslakhat knew why this happened—mostly out of necessity—but it didn’t make them any less annoying. It was the natural instinct for self-preservation, which led to the tendency to be overly cautious, which in turn led to assumptions like the one Orhan made the minute he spotted the Akhal-Teke striding across his desert. It was easier to assume he was here to make trouble than to take a risk in assuming he was not.

However, what most did not consider when prematurely judging another from afar was what the act of assuming might tell the other party. Maslakhat did not need to assume to know two things already about the buckskin that approached him. First, that he was impressionable—someone else had put words in his ears, and those words had festered inside his head, evolving into an idea that anyone else with a set of testicles that crossed his border was trouble. Second, that he was nervous, and it was manifesting in such a way that Maslakhat felt comfortable with the notion that perhaps Orhan had little experience in dealing with having another stallion in his desert.

There was a very important difference between an assumption and an educated guess. Maslakhat receives his distrustful and impatient greeting with a steadfast smile. Perhaps it was time for Orhan to rethink his impression of male visitors.

“That’s a rather philosophical assertion, don’t you think?” Maslakhat mused with a bit of playfulness in his eyes. “But if you’re asking why I’m here, I’ll gladly tell you. My interest lies in two areas. The lovely landscape that surrounds us here, and whether or not my half-brother might have made a home among these dunes.”


MASLAKHAT
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