I am the razor in the hands of your heart;
And I am the razor in the hands of God.
The golden mare's barrel rose in quick and shallow huffs, her soft-skinned nostrils mimicking the short and almost panicked cycle. Salty moisture did not bead along the smooth skin around her muzzle or under her eyelids. Her yellow, patchy and scarred coat wasn't dampened by sweat. The mare was slowly overheating. You see, Evaline lost her ability to sweat after the birth of the foals. While symptoms of anhidrosis are fairly common in horses, especially after extreme stress and irregular hormone fluctuations, Evaline feared what kind of detriment this new diagnosis would have on her ability to live comfortably on the island of Salem. She kept her concerns to herself, of course, not wanting to bring any more attention to herself than the whole ordeal in the Lagoon had brought already. Evaline wasn't one to shy away from attention. She loved it. But she didn't want anyone's sympathy. Thus, the mare was silently hopeful that if she could survive the temperatures of the Dunes now, in the dead heat of summer, she could weather the rest of the year with merely mild irritation.
By the time Valve found her and the foals, Evaline was struggling to maintain a regular breathe. Instead her gasps were elevated, and she was too woozy to stand on her own to head toward the pool just a few feet away from the cluster of palm trees she rested under. So when the familiar sleek, black frame of the Akhal-Teke queen appeared in the distance, Evaline flashed her a welcoming look, but didn't bother to exert any more energy. Evaline didn't immediately catch Valve's glare or hustle to answer her question. Instead her gaze focused out to the sand hills in the distance, her vision blurring past the two active foals, as she stared at nothing. After a brief silence, well, except for the hoarse wheezing that came as she struggled to catch her breathe, the mare cocked her petite head upward to look at Valve.
"I'm better now that you're here." She said. Evaline was truly grateful for her company. She owed this mare her life. Valve made her feel more safe than any stallion ever had. Evaline admired her so, though silently. She'd never be able to bring herself to thank her for what she'd done. Despite the whole ordeal, a small part of Evaline's cold heart still ached for her son. She grieved his death, and his short, wretched life, internally. "Could you help me to water? I'm afraid I've fallen and I can't get up." A brief, wiry smirk appeared across her whiskered lips as she tried to make light of her situation, her deformed ear flicking forward and back as she rolled some and outstretched her legs. "God almighty, it's hot today."
17 | Arabian cross |14.2 | Palomino | Mother of Kasabian, Shamwari, Vita Nova, Paradiso | Vinyl |