Orhan

The winter rains had arrived.

Orhan and Koray were both sodden as they stood beneath the meager overhang of the boulder that overlooked the western bank of the oasis. The rock had provided ample shelter for Orhan during the many desert downpours he had endured over the years, but Koray was now taller and broader than his sire and there was hardly enough room for the two of them to both enjoy a dry hide.

Both stallions faced out toward the rain-dappled surface of the water, their ears splayed sideways and their forelocks plastered against their foreheads as droplets from the rock above dribbled down onto their heads. Evidently neither was particularly comfortable with the physical proximity to each other, but both were apparently too stubborn or too repelled by the rain to move.

Eventually, Orhan broke the silence. "Have you decided what you want to do yet?"

Beside him, Koray set his jaw and responded with silence.

The buckskin stallion sighed. "I don't mean to pressure you, but you're a grown stallion now. With Yusuf here..." Orhan's voice trailed off and he side-eyed his son. His meaning was clear.

The perlino colt pinned his ears and snorted. "I don't get it. You could've had me as your second and heir, but instead you've decided to keep that useless blind guy. He doesn't even have any mares. He doesn't talk to anyone. I would be ten times better than him."

Orhan swivelled his hips around until he stood out in the open, facing his son head-on. His ears were not pinned, but they were twisted backwards and his eyes were glinting with anger as the rain further soaked his back. Koray was already taller than him, but the colt lifted his chin a further inch upward and stared down his nose at his father.

"Don't talk about him like that. I've told you this already," Orhan retorted, cracking his tail for emphasis. "He has nowhere else to go. To send him out into the wilderness to fend for himself would be dishonorable, if not a death sentence. You are able-bodied, he is not."

The two stallions stared each other down for a good minute. When at last Koray averted his eyes, Orhan relaxed a little and turned away. "Your mother would be disappointed in you," he said in a low voice, but in truth, he knew Carisa would be disappointed in him.

She did not yet know that he was kicking their firstborn son out.