When he said there were others besides him, she could have cried - out of both happiness and frustration. All those months and they’d been right here. How many times did she visit this bay? She thought she’d covered every inch of this place. There were spots she couldn’t reach - high up in the mountains, of course, and certain caves she knew hosted packs of dogs and other, larger beasts, but she thought she had went everywhere a horse could go and still they had slipped through. The island was large, yes, but not nearly as big as the mainland, and she’d had half a year’s worth of stories from her sire with which to get her bearings. Jasmine had been sure when she left that it would be more than enough to find someone. Larkspur himself had said the islands were teeming with horses. How hard could it be to track some scents and a few hoofprints? How many little signs had she missed?

Maybe he was right. Maybe she wasn’t ready to come here after all. Maybe she should have waited.

Anger at her foolishness started to rise in her chest when the stranger spoke once more, and the tone in his voice took her from wandering into the past and brought her firmly back to the situation at hand. His eyes glowed in the light, taking it and shooting it laser-like into her so that she felt the warmth of them like sunshine on her skin instead of the cool sea breeze. He smiled again, and Jasmine couldn’t help but reflexively smile back. At his last sentence she gave another startled bark of a laugh, and her eyes went right back to the sand. Her smile stayed, just as did the feeling of his gaze upon her.

She’d never had someone pay attention to her like this. There had been other colts, back at home, but at the time they weren’t near old enough for their interactions to be anything but harmless play. This? This felt different. This wasn’t something Larkspur had covered.

Her sire’s teachings had once seemed all-encompassing, but at least in this regard, she was on her own.

Or was she?

Instead of addressing his invitation, the young mare chose temporarily to ignore it. She met his gaze again, making a herculean effort not to fan the embers smoldering there. “How long have you been here? And where have you been?” she said with pure curiosity, failing to match the flirtatiousness dripping from his every pore. “Who are you?”

She flicked over his form once more, gleaming like a beacon against the dark of the sand and the shadows of the night. Her soft grin grew mischievous, though her tone remained the same. “Are you real, or did I dream you up?”

She was only half joking.