"If Love himself weep, shall not lovers weep,
learning from what sad cause he pours his tears?
Love hears his ladies crying their distress,
showing forth bitter sorrow through their eyes
because villainous Death has worked its cruel
destructive art upon a gentle heart,
and laid waste all that earth can find to praise
in a gracious lady, save her chastity."

Macabre's coat blended with the earth, a bland hue of brown. Her physical appearance was equally as plain. Though petite in structure and correct in confirmation, nothing about her features made her stand out. Especially when compared to the many loudly colored mares Dogun had collected here. Macabre was used to being overlooked by stallions - the last one chosen or wooed when surrounded by more sparkly trinkets. Macabre assumed Dogun would father equally handsome children, well chiseled, confident and healthy, with his other mares. At one time in her life, that was all she dreamed about. Finding a mate and settling down in a fruitful place where she could live out the rest of her days. The idea seemed so hollow now, unreachable for the brown little mare. Love no longer existed for her, outside of the emotion she had for her ailing son. Her window to find it had long been shut. Thus her priorities shifted -- remaining here for as long as Dogun would have her was just as good, she tried to convince herself.

Macabre was hardly a mare, still a filly in many ways, when she met Midas in the Crossing those years ago. He had been polite, despite finding her in the company of another stallion. She had seen something in him, some kind of good which propelled her to follow him home to the Quarry. The young mare was hardly in a position to be choosy, though in those days a sense of hope still burned feverishly inside her. Despite her privileged and blissfully boring upbringing, she was as timid as a stray kitten on the inside. Lost and alone, Macabre never found her way after losing her parents in the flood. In her weakest moments, she blamed them for not preparing her to live in such a cruel world. She had trusted too easily, clinging to anyone who evenly loosely offered her safety and companionship. And look where it got her.

Somewhere along the way, after she fled the islands and when she returned Midas had disappeared, she found Dogun. She was more skeptical than ever these days and would continue to keep him at an arm's length, despite the kindness he'd bestowed on her and her child thus far. She stood comfortably near him now, her expression sharp and interested. She had mastered the art of socialization at a young age. Though she rarely spoke she was quick-witted with her speech, perhaps the only hint of influence from her parents that still remained. Her feelings of unrest were kept well under wraps, hardly ever bubbling to the surface. In that regard, she was a well-oiled machine.

"I used to love the ocean." She said candidly as Dogun's story began to reach its end. She often dreamed of the sea. The ebb and flow of the waves, the swell of the creamy current as it lapped at the shoreline and whipped back into the depths from which it came. She had loved the water as a youngster. It was something they worshiped in her tribe, a gift from the gods, a vital part of her everyday existence. But it was also the monster that ripped everything away from her. "But not anymore, I'm afraid." As an adult, the ocean made her uneasy. Being by the shoreline made her tense. She hated staring out into its nothingness, knowing very well how small she was in comparison to its mass, how easily the liquid could consume her, as it had her parents.

Dark marbled eyes watched Dogun as he spoke now, chestnut-colored ear lobes flicking forward and back as she listened for Shiraz stirring the brush behind them. "That has a nice ring to it." She responded, a few wispy strands of her highlighted forelock drifting to cover one eye. In truth, Macabre believed in nothing of the sort. The world was merely a place of happenstance, chaos and the bubbling in-between. There was no order, no control. There was nothing greater than life and death. When she died, she would melt back into the earth of which she came and what she did during the years of her life would have really no impact at all. It was a cruel existence.

"I'm not sure I believe in anything anymore, Dogun."

She saw no use in lying.