Falls

In the darkness, there was silence. Silence but for the sound of the water rushing down over the rocky cliffs and spilling into the pool below. It was a calming sound. It stirred something deep within, reminding anyone who listened that even the river had a destination. Even though it it was a long journey, surely it too would make it to the ocean one day. Aikoh peered in the water, her eyes transfixed on the pale reflection that stared back at her. This was a far cry from where she'd imagined she'd been when she was just a foal in her father's herd. When he had fallen and she had been kept as nothing more than a prisoner, she realized any hopes she'd had of the future were no longer for her to dwell on. She had fallen into a routine to protect herself and those that remained of her herd. She didn't exactly know why she had been drawn to the water though. She had never lingered near the creeks back home, for so many people around meant she was surely to be reminded of her lowly status in life since her father had been chased out. The part that bothered her most was that he'd never returned. She'd hope that he would come back to reclaim his herd, or atleast to take her away. After a while those last vestiges of hope faded and she'd grown compliant with her place in life.

Frustration ebbed along the edges of her mind and she found herself stepping into the cold water. This would calm her agitation, she mused, as the water climbed up her dark legs to settled around her belly. Yes, cold certainly helped distract her mind. Her dark eyes peered back down at her ghostly reflection. She looked like him. Like her father. Why couldn't she look like her mother? The pale dappled beauty that Kasumi had been had rivaled even the prettiest and sleekest of the Arab beauties that had lived in the nearby desert. Instead, Aikoh was every bit as dark and dusty as her father. Yet, instead of blue eyes to draw attention from the dark color that framed his face, her own eyes might as well have been black. Black against the pale alabaster. She had always thought it a sinister look. She couldn't help the thought. It came so naturally. Her muzzle skimmed the top the water and she breathed upon her reflection, sending ripples through it so it would disappear. Her inky black locks dragged along the surface as she moved her lips along the part of her reflection that had refused to dissipate.

She had only been free for a few days now. The initial fright had finally gone away and left a resolve in her mind. She wanted something out of life. She wanted meaning. She could not survive in the outskirts anymore. For so long she had been living on the edge of herd life, mostly unseen unless she chose otherwise. People often attempted to remind her of her lineage, but she preferred being no one if it had meant the lord would not seek her out. Some had begged her to give the stallion a foal to raise her status. Aikoh had never once even considered the idea. Bring forth a foal to be raised to conquer nations like it's father, killing even those males that would surrender? No, as long as she lived she'd rather be a prisoner that do something so demeaning and ruin a child's chance at a normal life. She sighed and pulled her lips from the water, having decided it was no longer serving its purpose. Her dark eyes followed the ripples away from her body, hoping that eventually the cold she'd submerged herself in would seep through to her bones for a better distraction.