She waits, more patient than she’s usually capable of. Everything seems slower and more muted now that she’s experienced her world crumbling around her. But this tiny filly at her side gives her hope that even minutes ago she would have thought impossible to find.

Scylla feels an inordinate amount of relief that the foal is able to eat. She won’t have to stand here and watch the filly waste away, because now that she’s here, she would never dream of leaving. Something sparks in her heart at seeing the little girl full for what must be the first time in days, and even more at how trusting the foal is; she doesn’t fool herself that if the child had realized the mare standing over her isn’t actually her mother, that she would be as trusting.

One thing Scylla realizes she needs to address is that she doesn’t know the filly’s name. It would look odd for a mother to ask her child the name that she herself had given, so the mare does a bit of quick thinking. The filly looks pretty sleepy and Scylla assumes that one meal will not be enough to clear the fog from the child’s mind.

”Tell me your name so I can be sure you know who you are,” she murmurs, reaching down to run her muzzle along the girl’s thin, fuzzy body.

She can only imagine how frantic the filly had been when her mother had first disappeared, and Scylla wants her to relax before the option of going anywhere is even a consideration. She wants to wait here a little longer, just to make sure that the filly’s real dam isn’t going to return. Even still, she considers her charge’s questions. Perhaps if she were to go back to the Desert, this time with someone to focus on, she wouldn’t have to linger on the awful memories from her last venture there. It probably wouldn’t be smart to make straight for the place though.

”Have you ever been to the sea?” she asks, her voice still low as she hopes to lull the filly into what could end up being the best sleep either of them have had in days. ”We can watch the water lapping at the shore, hear the crashing waves out in the open water. It’s very peaceful there.”

Scylla would never have dreamed of going to the water’s edge herself – it would give her too much time to think about things she would rather not face. But they can’t hide away from the world forever, and it seems now that they need each other to survive.