ORHAN
Though his entire body remained pointed in the strange stallion's direction, Koray cast a brief side-eye at his half-sister. To his surprise, her body language was not submissive or quivering; it was angry and defensive, like his own. From what he remembered of her before she had left the Desert, it seemed she had grown out of her timid filly shell in the time she'd been gone. Briefly, Koray wondered what she would have done had he not rushed to see the intruder away. It might have been amusing to see her try to fight the stallion off herself, had Koray not been revolted at the idea of his trespassing hide lingering any longer than it had to.
He refocused when the intruder spoke. "No one cares who you are. Shut up and get going," he snarled, and was relieved to see Jaxon turn tail a moment later. Koray tossed his head and, without another look at Indira, lurched into a brisk trot to follow him. Koray would not be completely satisfied until he had seen the bastard disappear into the sea.
Meanwhile, a set of honey-brown eyes watched everything unfold. Orhan had been reclined in the shelter of the shrubs on the other side of the oasis when Indira's call roused him. Groggy with sleep, he was slow to react, and was squinting to be certain it was truly his long-lost daughter when the intruder appeared behind her, dark against the gold of the sands. By the time Orhan had lurched to his feet as fast as his lame front leg would allow, it was all over: Koray had swooped in and was chasing the stranger away.
Orhan's heart was in his throat as he hurried to meet his daughter, his limp more pronounced than normal, and there were tears swimming in his eyes when he reached her. "Indira," he cried, draping his neck across her withers and pulling her close. She had grown taller and more solid since he had last seen her, so that it was almost a stranger's body he touched. When he pulled away, his eyes looked her over with astonishment. "You're really here... You are, aren't you? I hope I haven't just imagined all this. Are you unhurt? Who was that stranger?"
ARABIAN/AKHAL-TEKE/MUSTANG; 15’1HH; BUCKSKIN; 12 |