Don’t be that way, The Voice grumbled. The dancing sorrel mare would not listen however. The cool night with the blazing moon overhead cast all the sand in a ghostly light. Vesti knew the sands were hot and yellow, but at this moment it looked white.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Vesti commented. “You’re just miserable because he decided to do it!”

I’m miserable because we’ll be miserable in short order.

“We?”

I’m in here too! The Voice continued.

“I know that,” Vesti laughed. “Tell me something I don’t know. But this is my body, not yours, so… anything you’d like to say about how I’m treating it?”

Look who’s getting snippy.

“That’s the real reason you’re grumpy, you know,”

Oh, do tell,

“Because I’m happy. You can’t stand it when I’m happy,” Vesti snorted. “Well, I got what I wanted, didn’t I? So you’re just going to have. To. Deal.” She laughed a little and gave a quick jump followed by a kick. Her laugh wasn’t quick the laugh of a mad man. Instead, it was more similar to the laugh of a child who has beaten their parents’ rules.

Yeah, well, what’s the point in coming to the Dunes?

Vesti stopped her laughing. The sorrel mare with unbleached mane did indeed stand on the edge of the Desert, right on the invisible line that separated the two lands. Her former home and her current one. Though, one could say that Vesti truly belong to the island of Salam itself. She knew it all too well.

“Because,” Her voice was soft, but stern. “If Badr’s alternate is around, it’s stuck here.” She pawed the sand. And this time, I’m not a scared filly and it isn’t his heir I’m carrying.”

Does that make Grai his heir?

“Oh, no, no, no,” Vesti shook her head. “Grai was his in blood, but definitely not a demon child. I suppose he left them both for that reason…” Vesti’s dark eyes scanned the dark horizon. “And why he cursed Kel…”

Vesti smiled to herself. In her mind, this was finally over. The journey that had begun in Atlantis all those years ago had come to a point where she could close that chapter on it. Her Demon in the Dunes could be laid to it’s rest. A rather large step in the right direction.

Vesti