“Maslakhat,” she said with a dip of her muzzle, acknowledging the Teke, and warmed in her heart by his manner. It stirred up an old memory (one that Shenzi treasured as men treasured gold), of standing beside a stallion in whose company she had always felt comfortable. “Shenzi,” she said, by way of introduction, her eyes settling on the bay stallion’s face, content to rest now that they were finally in one another’s presence. The barb flicked an ear, moved by the words that had preceded his name, and she spent a moment dwelling on them. Despite the unspoken things that lay between them – the reason why she was here in the first place, and the reason why she had kept away so long – Shenzi felt no pressure to apologise for her avoidance of him, for she picked up no accusation in his words, nor was there an expectancy in his expression that drew an explanation to her lips unbidden.
With a soft sigh, Shenzi shifted and settled again, dropping her gaze to the sand beneath her hooves. The smile upon her lips softened. “It’s a strange thing,” she found herself saying, her soul so at ease within her that she opened up and shared something of herself that she’d never voiced aloud before. “For a scatterling like me, ‘Home’ has never been a place, but a people.” The words were spoken, gentle and genuine, as Shenzi allowed her gaze to wander, her eyes coming alive as they followed the contours of the sand around them. “But there is something about this place that feels like Home. I wonder, do you feel it too? Is that what brought you here, Maslakhat?” Her gaze settles back on the Akhal Teke, and she finally reveals a truth.
“It was not by chance that I ended up here, but, after the frigid wastes of Tinuvel, and the inhospitable humidity and company that lingers in the Lagoon…” Shenzi trailed off, her expression darkening for a moment. “There was one bright soul in that dark place, but I do not know what became of him. There was a war here, and he went to fight in it. I only wish now, that I had asked him to stay, but I did not feel it was my place. Much would have been different,” she said, her voice suddenly wistful, “if I had.” But after a moment, Shenzi brightened, and lifted her gaze to Maslakhat’s. “I am glad to be here, however winding and wretched the road I’ve walked.” The words were genuine, spoken quietly into the space between the two of them. “The past is passed, and the best I can do is to honour it.” The brown mare withdrew then and took a moment for herself to quench all that lingered of her thirst, before she turned back from the water to ask another question of Maslakhat. “Please tell me, what can I do to be of service to you and yours while I am here. If you would accept my presence, it would please me to prove useful.”
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