Lounging in the shade of the dune, the golden duo passed idle chitchat back and forth, their native tongue tangling and turning between them like the shimmering, snaking waves of heat that broiled from the desert floor. They were at peace; his eyes half-lidded and chin resting lazily across her spine, her ears flicked half back and tail switching lazily over her flanks and hocks. This was as it should be, as it always had been. The not-twins had rarely spent a moment where they were not in each other’s company, as if invisible threads kept their shimmering, leather-tight hides mere inches from one another at all times. Yet, with their strange, sexless voices and near identical appearances, to have one was to have the other as well.

All too soon, their finely carved ears caught the telling swish and slither sound of hooves over sand. As one, they spun to face the approaching stranger; lean muscles bunched and gathered, gracefully swinging the gilded, statuesque creatures to face the petite, red Arabian. Dark, glittering eyes slid sensuously over her body, assessing her approach with calculated expertise. A gentle nudge of a dark muzzle to a pale shoulder passed without words one thought to another and the pair’s usual aloof, contemptuous air thickened. The ears of each twitched briefly at the foreign greeting before the mare lapsed into the common speech. They stared quietly at her for a moment, regal faces towering well above the scooped, upturned muzzle of the red mare as they pulled their graceful, swan necks to full attention. "This is our home; we would ask of you the same," the smaller of the pair replied after a moment, but before she could elaborate, the red mare is joined by yet another petite, fine-boned Arab. As the stallion spoke, the darker of the golden pair gently fixed her teeth to her companion’s right shoulder and pulled, bringing his muzzle to swing low for a moment, grazing her neck before he fixed his dark gaze to their right, finding the sleek, thin figure of a fellow Akhal-Teke just outside of the group’s immediate vicinity. His eyes narrowed imperceptibly and one long, fine ear remained fixed in that direction as he returned his gaze to the pair before him.

Heaving a long, weary sigh, the darker and smaller of the two creatures answered the queries of the strangers, fixing the stallion first with her intense, purposeful stare. “We have no friends amongst these sands, yabancı. We have returned to find you, strangers, in our home.” Here, her ears flicked backward and forward brusquely as she passed a cursory, disdainful glance toward the mare. “We would meet with this Valve, if they are the master amongst the dunes.” Her tongue curled gracefully over the common speech, lilting and turning it musically in a not quite feminine tone. She waited patiently then, as her companion kept silent, careful attention fixed on the creature in the distance.

---

sekhet & sutekh
mare. akhal-teke. buckskin. fifteen-three. seven.
stallion. akhal-teke. buckskin. sixteen-zero. six.
html by russell for goblin's use only.