QADIRThe dark giant grinned lightheartedly, reveling on the inside to know he wouldn't ever have to go to Tinuvel. Still, he couldn't deny it piqued his curiosity to see how enamored she was with it. Well. He was assuming that she was as fond of her cold home as he was with his old one. And if that was the case, he was surprised she wasn't there right now. Same reason you left your desert, probably, he thought with a slight grimace.
Qadir eased his face back to a content smile. He shifted his legs in the water again, trying to warm them for the umpteenth time. It was futile. Unless he left this chilling pool of water, he was doomed to be the cold throughout the whole conversation with his new friend. His ears flicked haphazardly at her mention of Salem, but he wasn't sure if it was in interest or shock. "Take me there," he begged her. "Please. It's been so long since I've felt the desert wind whip me with coarse sand, and seen the sun swallow the whole land with its heat." He begged her half because we wanted to see a shadow of his old home again and half because he wanted to get out of the damn lake.
He wondered if Salem would have any sand waterfalls. Er, sandfalls. It felt strange to compare one to an actual waterfall, and Qadir frowned slightly at her question a he examined the one they stood by. "Yes and no. We never found any this large, but most of the ones we did find cascaded just as smoothly." He huffed gently. "However, sometimes we would find ones that cycled from a small trickle to an aggressive outpouring of sand in mere minutes. I've never seen a waterfall like that." Well, he hadn't seen many waterfalls. He smiled at the ocean-marked mare to see if she had.
"Exactly!" he cried at her observation, then lowered his voice. "I'm sure we would have been perfect herdmates, if not for our different views of home." A shiver ran through his body, and he finally snorted and trudged out of the water. He turned around on the bank to face Selenium. Water dripped from his soaked body, the sun dappling his hide as he stood half in the shadow of a tree and half out.
"Please," he begged her one last time, "take me to Salem."  |