The pair locked a frank, deliberate gaze on the stallion as they stood before him, dark eyes glittering intelligently in their pale faces. Perhaps they were strangers to this land, strangers to this stallion, but they were no strangers to the nature of their kind. Perhaps it was the dry, blistering heat from above their similar homelands, but it seemed that the shared blood beneath their silky, metallic hides ran equally hot to the surface of their beloved deserts. They knew full well how quickly, how dangerously, a Teke mind could be turned to mischief or malice, should their volatile temper happen to be lit. Yet, knowing this, they had (of course) thrown caution to the wind and brazenly confronted the latest usurper to their supposed throne – it could be none other than the red-gold stallion before them, as his scent had recently been laid thick across the sands, though this was their first encounter.

In near unison, the pair’s lips twitched in good humor at the familiar tongue that slipped easily from the red-gold stallion. It was a relief to truly have found another of their kind, a relief to hear their mother tongue in a voice other than their own. Not entirely surprised by the stallion’s abrupt, purposeful questioning, the pair shifted in unison – the mare stepping backward to settle shoulder to shoulder with her companion as he stepped forward to meet her, brushing his dark muzzle across her neck before he took his turn to speak.

“ Bu bizim evimiz, erkek kardeş; we found it after nearly two years of homelessness, after being forced to abandon our birthplace by great famine. We ruled amongst these sands briefly before making a pilgrimage back, hoping against all hope that our rightful home would be restored to us." The stallion’s voice was only distinguished from the mare’s by a greater depth and raspier, heavier tone, though it remained equally as sexless and serpent-like, “We were only to be disappointed and so, we have returned. We have no wish to quarrel with another of our noble blood, but we will not again be made vagrants.”

---

sekhet & sutekh
mare. akhal-teke. buckskin. fifteen-three. seven.
stallion. akhal-teke. buckskin. sixteen-zero. six.
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