Kore had never been in the sea as much as she’d been the past week. First by force, under hurricane winds and the unyielding pull of the tide, and now, by choice, in calm shallow waters with a southbound current that did most of the work for her, she felt the rock of the waves around her and stepped from their depths onto a foreign beach. Her coal-black mane and whitecapped tail stuck, soaked, to her glossy wet skin, and she made sure to be out of distance of her golden escort when she shook the excess water from herself. The journey here, though quick, had been somewhat quiet; Kore wanted to ask the stallion a million questions, but other than softly telling him her name, she’d kept to a few mild comments about the weather and the swim. There would be time enough for more in-depth conversation once they were safely on dry land. She felt nervous in the water still, remembering all too clearly the way it had pulled her under and held her there, swept her out and threw her back when it was finished with her. Normally, when something - or, perhaps, someone - treated her that way, she had ways of dealing with that.
This was different.
Kore snapped the long threads of her tail against her hindquarters, giving herself another shake for good measure. It was well past the afternoon and into early evening, the sun lowering towards the horizon; her gaze danced over the endless slopes of the dunes bathed in the heavy warmth of dusk, glowing deep rusty red and throwing long shadows over each other. Like a balm the heat washed over her, already drying her thin coat. A cool breeze chased after it, pushing back from the sea. She could have cried for how familiar it felt.
She turned to look at Maslakhat. Like the dunes, the sun caught his sleek form in its dying light, illuminating him like a jewel against the deep blue of the encroaching night sky. Standing here, looking at him… he belonged here, there was no mistaking it.
Soon, she hoped, she would, too.
“It’s beautiful,” she told him, unable to contain the delight in her voice. Immediately she regretted her lack of restraint; It was hard, here, to maintain the dignified composure she’d been raised into, without her usual slew of “attendants”-slash-babysitters and in the presence of a handsome stranger. Kore cleared her throat, attempting to pull the corners of her lips down from a relieved grin to something more subdued. “Thank you for bringing me here, Maslakhat.”
She held his gaze for a moment, ears twitching quizzically. “Is this truly all yours?” Her head turned to sweep towards the expanse, and though they’d just come such a long way, her muscles twitched with longing. She ached to run again, to dive between the curves of the dunes and find everything that awaited her. “How very fortuitous of you.” Kore scented the wind, not finding evidence of very many others. If Salem held all that the stallion had promised, if it was made for her - for them - surely it would bring the attention of other like-minded individuals.
“Was it lonely, having it to yourself?” Her tone grew a bit playful, and though she kept her eyes on the sunlit dunes, her smile grew just a bit bigger.