He is not outside of earshot, persay, but really he kept as out of sight and out of mind as he could. He came because he would not have any stallion other than his brother covering his sister-in-law in her first heat as their Mira-- though he supposed she would not become true Mira anymore. What are they going to call her, or Antares, for that matter? It felt burdensome to think of the logistics and he is glad that it was Antares and Rigel who would establish those sorts of nuances now in this new land. Not him.
He wanders in the thick of the groves that allowed for shade in the meadow, plucking up the sparse grasses between the roots of trees and keeping his ears attentive to where he knew she lingered. He doesn’t, at first, even recognize there was another Arabian present. She did not shout for fear, so he needn’t pay any heed excepting to the scents and extra noises around her. As it was, he chases off a too interested, looming, stallion of some spanish make. He is slightly sheened from chasing and fighting the stallion off properly when he hears her exclaim and he charges back for concern of having left her even that long in the thick of Fall while the Fires of Qetesh still lingered even just the little bit that it did.
He shakes when he slides to a stop, realizing that she was speaking to a gray mare of the People and looked cheered rather than terrified as he had interpreted her shout. Now, close enough, he hears her - "I know that you will enjoy it there so very much! Let me call Atair, my shaqiq alzawj," she comments, dancing forward and issuing a whistle in a direction not precisely focused where he was standing.
Clearly he is not so desperately needed, her attention quickly returned to the mare, but it amuses him a little - considering Rigel’s and Antares’ perspective on her opinion of Lesser Wives. Was she fetching a Lady in Waiting? Hadn’t she had enough with the pretty black rabicano and her Sekhmet crowned sadiqaa? Or perhaps she had finally seen the value of Lesser Wives already and had seen sense.... No. Not likely, he thinks after a moment. Minds are not so easily swayed as his brother Rigel liked to think.
"He came with me today, so that I might walk freely without the gaze of unwanted suitors. The season is dangerous here, but he will gladly shield you from unwanted attention as well." He hears her explain, his ears split to either side in neutrality when he arrives at a walk, still slick with sweat and a scrape turning three or so stars red in his hide by his withers. “as-salaam alaikum.” he says after her last statement.
"Atair, 'akhi fi alqanun, please meet my new friend, Corona. She wishes to see the Dunes herself, as my Guest, in the hopes that our home brings her as much joy as it does us." He nods, eyes not still as he looks on the gray mare. It is not altogether neutral, but Sayyida made him far more accustomed to thickening the mask of indifference that warded her attempts at matchmaking from taking unwarranted root in the women she was slowly collecting around her as Desertborn horses began to seek out Ra’s light for themselves. "And Corona, this is Atair, son of Mira, Third of Sirius, Sanctified of Montu, Knighted of Sekhmet."
He startles, for half a second, ears flicking back and muscles tensing at the formality she accorded the mare. It made him stretch out a long foreleg and incline his head. “yashrifuni 'an 'altaqi bik , Corona.” He rises again, “She identifies me by titles normally given to those of good standing in our people. I afford you the greeting such a thing deserves.” He eyes Sayyida, clearly not saying what he thought to, but generally sighing and falling into a more relaxed nature.
“Sister, I have already chased off one who had taken too much interest in you and your companion. If we might get back, I am certain your Husband would be keen to keep you for himself.” He is mistrusting of Sayyida’s mischief, it seems, and he openly backs himself so that Corona and Sayyida might pass, flanking them with only sparse room so that they might continue onward in conversation without his interruption and with some ability to be only in one another’s confidence.
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