"andhere mein vah ek raasta talaashatee hai"
in darkness she finds her way
Vihaan, as hyper-focused as she is on each little movement Cain makes (though many of his expressions and responses fill her with dread and only succeed in making him less appealing in her eyes) she is acutely aware of the other stallion’s approach, and as he stopped near them, shard of terror pierced her heart. The kathiawari hybrid turned her gently curved ears back, risking a glance to the stallion when the painted male was busy addressing him. It seemed that he was not here to stake a claim on Everglow as well, and Vihaan felt her shoulders relax just a little. She shifts her position the slightest bit, stepping closer to Everglow, cringing at the words that tumble from the other mare’s mouth. She can hear the desperation and horror, tries not to feel it herself, and shakes her head weakly.
Is it much too late, she wonders? If only her mother were still nearby, perhaps with her help, Vihaan could have made it. But even as the dunalino falls silent, remains still and stalwart in front of Everglow, the brute speaks of her inner torment as if he can see into her very mind, her very soul (but not her heart, not now and perhaps not ever). His words chill her o the bone, and she feels like dropping her head in defeat. To show weakness now, however… Would all of this have been in vain. And so, even as the painted stallion declares with boldness that he would follow them into the water if they were to try and escape that way, that he might even try to drown them, Vihaan does not outwardly waver. His threat is real enough to Vihaan that she doesn’t argue against it.
From where she stands, she cannot see any other way.
“Forgive me, Everglow. If we try to swim, I cannot promise your safety.” Or be sure of my own, words that went unspoken. “Abandon you I cannot, so for now, this is what I feel I must do. ” She had journeyed far, and while she wouldn’t admit it out loud, she was tiring, and though she did not doubt herself, Vihaan certainly didn’t like her chances if the black and white beast closed with them in the sea. “And to you, warrior, I am grateful. I ask you forgive too.” Sent a stolen and fleeting glance toward him once more. Vihaan had scented the blood even if she couldn’t see it from this distance. He had engaged in battle in what seemed to be defense of Everglow and herself, for she gleaned no signs of possessiveness from him, just anger towards the other male. “I should not have doubted you.”
Finally, she addresses the one before her again, tilting her muzzle downwards ever so slightly. He seemed to have taken her seriously, and appeared to be considering what she had offered him, and so Vihaan currently felt no need to assert herself further – if it wasn’t clear to him already that she was a force to be reckoned with, then he was blind to even more than Everglow was. “You, one who does not give up quickly, now and here in this place I ask for two things,” Vihaan spoke strongly, her words edged with iron but not ice – despite the many observed things that she detested about this one, she had no desire to antagonise him in this moment, not when so much was at stake. “I would know the name of the one I am to follow, and I would ask that you allow me to take Everglow to her home, to see my mother and father for short time, before I journey to your desert.” If his eyes are not already fixed upon her, Vihaan will wait until they are, before she speaks again. “I will keep word, will come to you.” There is no trace of deception, no room for doubt.
Vihaan waited, in anticipation of his answer, and felt a lump form in her throat at the further protests Everglow might make. She worried that the mare felt guilty, or responsible for this, and for the first time in her life, Vihaan felt alienated from these islands, because her ways – the ways of her mother and her mother’s homeland, where not known here, not understood. Vihaan herself, while she had no love in her for the black and white stallion, did not fear entering his dominion or living up to the promises she’d made him, as much as she feared what others would think of her for making such rash oaths and refusing to break them.
“It is done,” Vihaan spoke with resignation, and there was a finality and acceptance in her words. And, in what was perhaps a poor attempt to quell Everglow’s clear distress, she continued. “Though I was not born to desert here, my mother’s homeland is part of me, and the sun and hot sands, they are part of me, in my blood.” She would not be unhappy living in the desert by any means – the only unhappiness she might know would end up coming from the black and white stallion himself, but Vihaan had already more than proved (to herself, if no-one else) that she could match his dominance with her will, and if, in the future, such a thing were required again, Vihaan had faith.
“Do not fear for me. I will be alright, Everglow. Try to understand. This was my choice.”
Vihaan
the persistent
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