Though the water was not the cool, crisp running water she was used to drinking from the river which ran off the falls on Crossing, it still inspired relief as she touched her muzzle to the surface and drank deep. What dryness had affected her before was soon swept away by a few swallows of stale water. Ripples glanced off the contact she made and shimmered over the surface before smoothing out again. Just three deep drinks later (she wanted to satiate her thirst but not fill her stomach with water) she lifted her head, little droplets rolling from her lips and hitting back into the pool.
The sun, in all its mighty heat, beat down against her flesh and her eyes sought out the nearby shade the stallion had previously emerged from. She glanced from it, to him, and then began moving toward it with her long black tail flicking idly at her hind to stir any pests who tried to land. If he didn’t want her lounging among the shade he’d likely stall her from it, but if he didn’t mind he might allow her the few comforts his land seemed to hold.
Avangeline looked at him when he spoke and felt a small pinch in her heart. She wished she had a purpose, but the last two years – if she were honest with herself, the last five years – had been… pointless. They’d amounted to nothing and she still missed home just as much today as she had the first day she awoke, coughing up saltwater on Crossing Isle.
“A mare once told me I looked like I belonged on Salem.” She answered him quietly, gentle eyes watching him. “I didn’t know what it meant and at the time I was –” she broke off abruptly, not wanting to say she’d been waiting for someone to come back to her. “I was preoccupied and unable to leave Crossing Isle.” She said the words a little fast but got them out as level and nonchalant as she might manage. “Now…” She trailed off for a minute, gaze leaving him and touching the sand at their hooves as she fought with the yawning emptiness like an ache burrowed inside her.
“I have no purpose.” She might have shrugged if she was capable. Instead, Avangeline simply said the words as they were and tried (with some difficulty) to pretend as if they didn’t weigh as heavily on her heart as they had before.
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