Koray

Morning came to the desert bearing a shroud of heavy grey rain clouds. Humidity was thick in the air, and the gloom suffocated the landscape with a miserable half-light. Koray was already awake, having climbed one of the hills overlooking the oasis before the first glow of dawn to stand facing the distant shore. He had dozed off and on until it was just bright enough to make out the lavender curves of the terrain before him, and now his tired green eyes, set deep in a face lined from insomnia, watched the horizon with a calm intensity that belied the dread churning in his gut.

He had failed. His mother and sister were gone again, and he did not know where they were. They had left no trace of their departure; there were no hoof prints in the sand or tail hairs snagged on shrubs to indicate the direction they might have taken, though there might have been had Koray noticed their absence sooner. It shamed him to think he had been so distracted, so obsessed with the comings and goings of Vita Nova, and with checking and double-checking the borders of his home for any sign of a threat, that they might have been gone for days, even weeks without him realizing that something was amiss. The desert herd had trickled to a meager congregation of just three horses including himself, and it was humiliating.

Yet he could not leave to bring his family back or to gather new members. He felt a possessiveness over his home and over Vita that he justified by reasoning that the mare would almost definitely slip away if he was not here to watch her. Besides, Evren was not old enough to entrust the responsibility of guarding their home in his place yet, if she ever would be. She was too easy-going, too cavalier for his liking, and he half-suspected that she was talking about him with Vita behind his back. All in all, Koray - despite being in the highest position of power - felt absolutely powerless. He did not know what to do regarding any aspect of his life - how to bring his family back, how to lead a herd, or how to make Vita Nova like him - and that made him angry.

The perlino stallion stomped the ground and snorted just as a fine drizzle began to cascade from the dark sky. He lifted his head and silently cursed the clouds, as if everything were their fault. How much easier it would be, he thought, if it was theirs and not his own.