Valve walked across the sand alone, her dark eyes glittering in the moonlight as she set out for the border of the Dunes on the distant horizon. She is transfixed, drawn to it like the tide. Her hooves shush over the soft sand like gentle waves, the hitch in her step nearly healed.

She did not know what she expected to find when she reached the Desert—perhaps her nephew, the conniving Maslakhat, had already made it there. The information Gabbar had brought regarding the bay Akhal-Teke’s interaction with El Halin was of great interest to the black mare, yet Valve was careful to not approach A’idah and question her—yet. She did not want to hastily reveal their relationship. Not until she knew exactly what sort of scheme he had gotten himself involved in. Valve does not enjoy ignorance, and thus she must attempt to correct this by finding Maslakhat—a task that took precedent even to hunting Yusuf. She snorted loudly, perturbed, and continued on her path.

At last, the rising dunes began to flatten and what were once imposing hills of sand were now simple slopes of little consequence. Valve stopped and lifted her head, examining this space of land where the border to her territory must lie. The desert stretched far ahead of her, expansive and vast and blue like a deadly calm ocean under the full moon above. As she pressed onward it became clear that there were two figures jutting up from the sand, breaking the even plane of the earth and standing a short distance ahead of her. They are unmistakably equine and when the far one tossed her head, it became apparent that they were also Arabians.

Valve treaded softly, her footfalls as delicate as her frame would allow, moving closer still and careful not to alert them to her presence before she wished it.

“İyi akşamlar,” she spoke at last, her voice even but with authority. She stood with measured poise, her eyes combing over the pair cautiously. A chestnut and a grey. How peculiar, she thought as the hair along her spine prickled forebodingly.

VALVE
slenderman x black heart machine