Things had been… strange lately.
Ramiel and Raziel grazed along the lush, late spring grass that hadn’t yet been nibbled down by the heavy traffic that occupied and visited Crossing Isle, their tails flicking across one another they stood so close, disturbing flies that landed on their coats. Every so often Ramiel’s honey-warm gaze drifted toward his pale brother, studying him as he took breaks between breaking the grass shoots and chewing them. Raziel knew his brother’s eyes were on him and knew the further they loitered and the longer he didn’t fight Ramiel on leaving the more curious Ramiel was going to become.
Raziel hadn’t told Ramiel about his evening with Dahlia. Even he wasn’t entirely sure what’d happened, or he knew and was scared to understand it. For once he’d let the walls tentatively dip down, let himself enjoy something – someone – and now he ruminated. Whenever a horse of her similar golden color was seen out of the corner of his eye he found himself looking, and suffered through the stab of disappointment that lanced his heart in silence, his pale pink lips drawing into a grimace as he suffered as one would suffer through a painful burst of heartburn. It’d go away and he’d do best not to think on it whenever he could help himself.
But the more and more spindly-legged foals they saw stuck to their dam’s sides, the more and more prevalent that ache became.
“Hey, Raziel?” Ramiel spoke up, having been watching his twin brother for a little while now, the grazing forgotten. He could see the troubled thoughts across his twin’s face, and he wished so terribly he’d open up and tell him what it was. Was it the islands? Did they make him miss their family? But Ramiel knew his twin well enough to know eventually Raziel would tell him, and it was often best to let him do so on his own time.
Raziel blinked the thoughts from his mind and glanced at his brother.
“We should go see an island!” Ramiel suggested with a smile. “Maybe Luthien! We can go to the Prairie, see if we can find Daph-”
“No.” Raziel said it too loud. Too blunt. His own ears twitched back before he gave his head a shake, upsetting some strands of pale white hair. To keep Ramiel from thinking too long, he smoothly supplied another suggestion he knew his twin would find exciting. “We should go to Salem. It’s the one island father never visited and had no stories of. Imagine his surprise when we meet up with him again and can tell him what it’s like.” He smiled then, blue eyes on his brother, praying he’d take the bait.
Ramiel looked with surprise at his brother. That seemed an idea that he should have had, not Raziel. Still, despite the lingering knowledge that there was something his brother wasn’t telling him, Ramiel wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth (no pun intended) and decided to be excited his brother was willing to see another island with him. Plus, he couldn’t help but think of how right Raziel was – it would be fun to tell their father all about their adventures on Salem.
A trek on the coastline of the Lagoon and a short swim later the speckled boys stood on Salem and walked up its sandy shoreline, hooves pressing and sinking as the ground gave way beneath them. Though they had desert blood somewhere in their veins it’d been rather muddled by the mix of other breeds, making their steps not as light as they traveled. Ramiel’s brown eyes were bright, happy as they went. He turned his head every which way and picked up his hooves to a high-knee trot, dark tail flagged out behind him. Raziel begrudgingly bobbed his head and picked his hooves up to match his brother’s gait, careful not to let him get too far ahead.
“Look at this place Raziel!” Ramiel exclaimed with excitement as they marched up the swell of a sand dune and stopped at its peak, glancing down on the rolling sand and sparse vegetation below. “Can you believe such a beautiful place exists?” He glanced at Raziel, smiling.
Raziel’s smile was gentler and more for his brother than it was for Salem. He shook his head gently and appraised his brother with fondness in his blue eyes. You see the beauty in everything, Ramiel.
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