Jetta

My lady. My lady.

The words were distant and echoey, and so warbled that Jetta could not tell if they were real or if they were in her mind. All she knew was that they threatened to pull her from her safe place, and so she resisted; she tried to burrow deeper into the placid stillness, to block out the sounds and focus on resting her weary body. But the voice kept speaking to her, and its words were becoming clearer, dragging her up out of the still pool of her brain.

Her bloodshot blue eyes fluttered open, and she found herself looking up into the face of a stranger. She blinked rapidly in the bright light, and for a few moments her head swam, making the vision of the horse before her shimmer evasively like a mirage. She blinked again, and her eyes focused quite abruptly, revealing in startling detail the image of a pale stallion looking down at her with concern. The sun was at his back, creating a halo around his body, and she stared up at him in wonder, dumbstruck. He was possibly the most beautiful creature she'd ever seen, even with the tear in his ear.

The presence of the strange stallion made her question if she was in the right place, for while she knew of Ailill by name, she had never met him before. Furrowing her brow, the mare rolled sideways into an upright reclined position, and rested her chin on the sand for a moment as a wave of dizziness overcame her. Finally she looked up into the clear blue eyes of the stallion above her, her face the picture of exhaustion and bewilderment.

"Is this... Paradise? Am I in the right place?"