Gabbar
stallion . arabian . bay . 14.3hh . 6
Gabbar remains where he is as the mare moves to the shade after slaking her thirst. Once she has settled, he joins her to continue their conversation out of the direct eye of the sun. He is tempted to splay himself over the sand again. “Mm,” he murmurs in agreement of the unnamed mare. “Your breed is built for the sands, as is mine. It is good you have come.” He means it. Gabbar has traveled far and long and been in all kinds of environments unlike his homeland and his heart suffered through all of it. He does not care for the mild climates he’s experienced, nor the sharp cold that afflicts the Crossing yearly. This heat, damnable though it may seem at the moment, is the energy at every Arabian’s core; a blessing from Iç sent to keep the breed strong and hardy and capable of any mortal challenge the gods might deem to bless them with. Gabbar likes to think Avangeline feels how right it is to stand where she does now, and as she reiterates her lack of any foreseeable function he seizes on the idea as it flits through his head.
“Would you like purpose?” he asks. “Until you find one of your own, of course. These sands are vast but the herd is small— only myself and one other currently call the Dunes home. You were born for this,” Gabbar continues with a wide gesture of his snout to capture the impressive golden hills surrounding the small haven they occupy. “You’ll fit in nicely here and I can give you purpose. These borders are too big for one horse to watch by himself. I’d welcome your help.”
It is a strange thing for him, personally, to offer. Gabbar seems to have more or less cast aside most of the vestigial remains of his culturally-bred guilt and has accepted this new role of his in one great stride. Even as he invites Avangeline to stay he is aware of how strange it might have felt, months ago, to make such an offer to a mare —to a ‘Teke, no less. But Gabbar means it. He has no qualms about sharing land with breeds outside his own, and has been enjoying, immensely, all the opportunities he has had to get to know individuals entirely unlike himself. These Isles have certainly been eye-opening. He flicks his tail and quirks his ears at the slender buckskin, and waits.
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