Maziel stood quietly on the shoreline of the Bay, her chin lifted and the breeze rolling off the sea pulling her dark mane from her neck. She could see nothing but endless black and knew not what the world before her looked like, but she could hear the roar of the ocean and know the waters weren’t churning as dangerously as they could when gripped with a storm. She could smell the strong brine of the sea and knew a clump of slimy, wet seaweed had just washed up on the beach a few paces left of her.
And Maziel didn’t need her sight when she heard hooves crunching in the pebble beach to smile, turn her head and nicker gently, beckoningly at her sister as Mariael drew close.
Mariael walked and rubbed her body along the length of her sister’s, sighing with contentment and leaning into Maziel. They’d done this since they were foals, spindly legged and uncertain, supporting one another as they grew. Maziel turned her head and lipped gently at Mariael’s chest. They had both lost their mother’s when they were young – well, technically Mariael hadn’t exactly lost her mother, but she hadn’t been present in Mariael’s foalhood. They’d only had one another and their father and now they didn’t have him, either.
“You’re troubled.” Maziel said gently and lifted her chin away from her sister, staring blankly in Mariael’s direction.
Mariael looked toward the sea.
“I feel…” she paused, trying to find her words. Maziel waited patiently. “Complacent. I don’t like it, Maziel. I don’t like this feeling.” Worry was a plague in Mariael’s voice. “Every day when I send the guard to check the borders and every day when I investigate an area I’m waiting for something terrible to happen.” A heavy, frustrated sigh left Mariael’s mouth and Maziel felt the warmth of her breath against her skin as her sister turned and rested her cheek on Maziel’s neck. “I don’t know sister,” Mariael said gently, “our lives have always been filled with torment. It just seems… strange to have nothing for so long. To have a thriving home. To be safe. I feel like something’s coming… but maybe I’m just being paranoid.”
Maziel smiled gently and turned her neck inward so she could gently tap her muzzle against Mariael’s cheek. “You’re not being paranoid; you’re doing what you do best.”
“What? Being a worrywart?”
“No. Being a Queen. Protecting the herd. Staying on guard even in times of quiet. We’re lucky to have you, Mariael.” Maziel said with soft, honest encouragement.
Mariael could think of no argument. She only blinked, stunned with the realization Maziel laid at her hooves and then smiled fondly at her sister. “What would I do without you?”
It was a question neither of them ever wanted to have to answer.
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