Ava’s head snapped up at the sound of Orhan’s voice. Her emerald green eyes were wide and wet with tears when she turned towards him. She hadn’t heard him approach. It was hard to notice or concentrate on anything except the startling white colour of the filly that lay helpless on the sand before her. At his question she opened her mouth to explain – to ask why couldn’t he see that her child was doomed to die – but the words died on her lips and only a cracked sob came out. She had never wanted to burden Orhan, but she had never planned on anything like this. With a soft cry, she pressed her face into his outstretched muzzle for comfort, tears leaking from her eyes as she squeezed them tightly shut, as if the nightmare might suddenly disappear if she couldn’t see it unfolding before her. She only opened them when a strange hissing sound assaulted her ears. Nasmat had arrived. The mare had always been kind to her, even accounting for her blunt nature, but the expression that settled on the grey’s face was strange and slightly unnerving. Ava withdrew from Orhan’s touch, watching as the other mare surveyed the scene, trying to judge the strange quality in her expression. The White Foal. She said it as though it were some kind of title, as if this new-born filly were something she had heard about long ago in legendary tales. When Nasmat made as though to move, Ava took a step forwards too, as if to intercept the mare. She didn’t understand what had enraptured the other woman, but it made her anxious. Perhaps her child would die soon, but until then nobody would touch a hair on her head. Not while Ava still had air in her lungs and blood in her veins. All of a sudden, however, Nasmat seemed to focus her attention and pulled her gaze away from the foal and back towards her mother. Her questions seemed so irrelevant – why did she want to know about that evil stallion? Why did she want to remind Ava of such a thing at a time like this? Couldn’t she see that her child was dying? Ava shook her head, her cheeks still wet with tears, trying to clear her cluttered thoughts. “W-what?” she stammered, her expression pained as she attempted in her distraught state to work out what Nasmat wanted from her. “H-he was black. A-and white.” For the first time, she seemed to find an ounce of courage somewhere inside her, and her voice hardened. “Why does it matter?” she snapped, tears welling in her eyes again. |