With all that had happened, the good-natured deaf mare that had stumbled into the desert weeks before had been the furthest thing from his mind.
When eventually he did remember her, Orhan was swamped with guilt. After bringing her to his oasis in the middle of the night and promising her a place to stay, she had up and disappeared by morning. Any hoof prints she had left in the sand were swept away with the wind, and it was as if she had never existed. Yet, too caught up in the drama that had been dumped on the desert herd like a merciless rainstorm, he had not troubled himself to find her.
It was only now, after having some time to calm down and gain some perspective on his situation, that he was beginning to consider that the world was a much more dangerous place for a horse with a disability, and that – regardless of Carisa’s intentions by disappearing – by failing to track her down, he had thus failed in his role as a protector. For all he knew, the mare was out there dead and rotting beneath the desert sun, bitten by a snake whose rattle she could not hear.
So caught up in his misery was he that he did not notice her on the horizon.
He stood at an angle to the oasis, head low and eyes half shut. He was tired, as he had been every day since Maslakhat had waltzed into his home and shaken his family’s foundations to their core. Flies buzzed incessantly about his face, but he did not bother to shake them off. This is how Carisa found him when her whinny jerked him rudely from his mental haze. He lifted his head a few inches, disturbing the cloud of flies that that settled on him, and openly stared at the palomino mare as she reached him and spoke as if they had never been parted.
She wanted to meet the others. His gut churned. The ‘others’ was a bit of a sore topic. Orhan pressed his lips together and turned his head to gaze off into the distance. Poor thing. She has no idea... “You don’t have anything to worry about,” he said, in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. “But... your timing... It could be better. Some things happened while you were away.” His eyes searched for hers, his expression solemn and creased with lines that belied his age.
|