They say time heals all wounds but that is just a lie.


As Xina pauses on the shores of the Dunes, her two tone gaze glanced back at the hot sands she is once again forced to leave and sure she will never see again. Only this time instead of striking out on her own into an unknown territory she had been shuffled away amongst the bodies of other mares. The older woman feels nothing more than a sheep among the flock and Olaf is the shepherd. But this time when the wolf had attacked, he had lost a member of his flock.


And it was Xina’s fault.


When the roan woman had first came into the herd, her mind had been unstable and often short-circuited which caused fits she could not explain and sights she could not bear. Blood and violence was often the cause of such outbursts. So to keep the others safe she had decided to stay away from the main body of the herd. She was like a ghost often drifting on the outskirts just barely close enough to see them from a distance. Maybe it was because of these fits that Olaf allowed her to stay a stranger or because he wanted to allow her the time to heal; Xina was still unsure.


But when the day came and that traitorous mare and that desert born stallion came to take their home; Xina found herself just staring like a spectator unable to do anything. It was the lead mares job to support her stallion and lend strength to protect the herd, not a common herd mare which is what she had been reduced too if she could even claim that. But the spotted mare that was nothing more than a bully did not show leaving Olaf to face down two on his own which resulted in the loss of both home and family.


Now as they stand among the trees of the Forest, Xina finds herself looking around with a new light in her eyes. No longer does she hold the dull crazed look of a mare that has lost her mind; it is anger that glints in those blue and brown eyes. Anger that she had allowed a mare to claim a title that she obviously did not have the power to hold or deserve and the roan mare decided she would not allow that to happen again.


Up until now, Xina had been quiet and watchful. She had seen the tall mare who claimed to be lead over this herd assert her authority but Xina did not feel as if that was enough any longer. That is all the mare before had done to get herself a higher rank and that had resulted in a member being ripped away. This time the roan would make sure that the lead mare deserved her position.


Stepping away from the place where she had been resting amongst the trees and to an opening that would be a good area for a scuffle, Xina bellowed out a challenge. Her voice was rough with age and experience, not the high pitched call of a young know-it-all filly and it was there that she would wait for the buckskin mare to come to her call.


She was going to heal herself and the herd along with her.