I would honestly love you now,
But I would lovingly let you down.
A warm, humid breeze whipped its way through Jabari's matted, two-toned locks as he stared back at the sabino stallion. Gnome. He played the fellow's name over and over again in his mind. Why did it sound familiar? At first, the young stallion just assumed it was because he had been here too long. Gnome was Rougaru's No. 2, after all. But the longer he mulled over it, and the longer he stood in the stallion's company on the dark stretch of Paradise beach, he second-guessed himself.
He listened apprehensively to the splotched stallion's explanation. Then it clicked. "Lilika." He said out loud, one chestnut ear swiveling to the side of his head and then forward again. His blue eyes trained onto the stallion then, searching his expression for any semblance of familiarity. The memory of the dark mare was a distant one. Jabari mostly remembered how startled she had been to find him in the Prairie. But after their awkward introduction, the mare was quick to explain her history on the island. "I met her once recently, when she came to the Prairie looking for you." He offered in short explanation. "I hope she found you."
It was the memory of this brief encounter that built some trust in Gnome, at least for now, as Jabari settled in to hear more of what he had to say. Gnome was surprisingly sympathetic. His journey to Atlantis didn't seem all that different from Jabari's either. The painted stallion's expression softened some, and a short-lived smile even crossed his pink lips for just a moment. "How long have you been here?" Jabari asked next with the flick of his red tail.
Part of Jabari was still suspicious, of course. He had learned the hard way not to trust anyone in Rougaru's keep. He wondered why Gnome hadn't tried to move his family out of Paradise by now, if he indeed did not agree with some of the more egregious leadership practices of the silver bay stallion. Why sit idly by?
Stallion | Brienne x Shamwari | Chesnut Overo | 15.2 h| Photo © Carina Mailwald | © Vinyl |
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