Falls

Rivaini

Rivaini had always feared to lose her brother, but had never dreamed that she would be the cause of it.

"Iscariot! Iscariot!" The bay mare's throat felt raw as she inhaled another breath, and her shouts pained her as if the words were literally tearing their way up from her chest. Blinking the combined salts of sea and sorrow from her sky-colored eyes, Rivaini managed to turn her body around, but there was no amount of exertion that could overcome the forces of the current that held her in its iron grip. And after a time - despite the terror and adrenaline that fueled her frantically-kciking legs - Rivaini succumbed to her exhaustion, surrendering her body entirely to the will of the sea.

By the time strength returned to her, there was only a thin, dark smudge on the horizon to indicate the land that she had left. For a moment, the mare's form was suspended motionless in the dark waters as opposing desires warned within her. The small, ever-hopeful voice of her heart pled with Rivaini to go back and save her brother - but the colder tones of sense argued that there was no way the stallion could have survived. If even she, with her powerful limbs, had been overcome, then surely Iscariot was.. Rivaini did not allow the thought to complete itself, but continued onward after this brief pause, tossing the pale, sodden strands of her mane from her vision with renewed determination.

She might not want to go on, but she had to. For his sake. For Iscariot.

Better the death he faced unaware than the one you knew was coming for him, that implacable voice whispered. Rivaini snarled, but did not deign to waste breath arguing with herself. Though she might not have relished them, there was truth to those words - if Iscariot had been doomed regardless, at least he had never known the betrayal that had awaited him. It was only by chance that the blue-eyed mare had overheard her father discussing the plan with the few mares whose loyalty he knew was unwavering. This herd cannot - will not - have a cripple as its heir, he'd said. It is up to us to keep our family strong - regardless of the cost.

Resurfacing from the depths of her memories as a sea-mammal might swim to the surface for air, Rivaini's pale gaze narrowed at the sight of a dark line not unlike the one that had long since disappeared behind her. Land? It was not a certainty, but the young mare favored her odds of survival far more in that direction than the one she'd come from.

Fortune must have favored her - she arrived on the beach breathless, bedraggled, and heartsore, but whole. The sun was just beginning to dip beneath the sea as she dragged her russet body from the waves, stumbling once or twice as stones shifted beneath her hooves. Strangely enough, though she'd left the sea behind her the sound of rushing water seemed to enfold her again, such that Rivaini wondered if she had been wandering in circles. Instinct and that no-nonsense voice prodded her to continue further inland, to seek shelter in the trees before the last light of day was gone. But it felt as if the will had seeped from her body, taking her bones with it. After a few more steps on legs that felt as if they had turned to jelly, the mare's limbs folded beneath her with a soft oof of surprise, and she could not find the strength to rise again.

Part of her could not help but to envy Iscariot - for surely it was far easier to die than it was to continue living.

mare / five / silver bay tobiano / andalusian mix / 15.3hh