Rigel looked at Aldebaran as if he had grown seven heads and had vomited starfire. It had been almost two plus years since he’d seen Dhaniyā - and still the speaking of her name leaves him bereft and yearning. Love and romance had always been an interest - but it had been Dhaniyā who had awoken in him the need and desire that made Romance make sense. Her physical beauty had been unparalleled, only amplified by her gloriousness in mothering and tenderness.

He had coveted her even before she was assigned as his caretaker by his evil host. It had been only later that he had learned that inside was a woman equally as beautiful. She was his perfect match, lovely and kind and soft and devoted. She was washed with the graces of Isis, the wealth of Hathor, and the fires of Qetesh ate at her innocence so that even unseasoned, Min had made him want her in spite of it.

To hear her name from Aldebaran’s lips was almost too much and the rambling only grew more insistent in the perpetual assurances that he had done nothing but let her recuperate in his home oasis, taking the time to feel safe enough to venture out and find him.

He feels his heart clench, "Where is she? ...where is Dhaniyā?" That name, oh he is intoxicated by it, all but ignoring the spew of words Aldebaran vomits with his ears pinned and his haunches leaning him away from some imaginary kick or bite. Fair enough, he had done the unthinkable to keep him from finding Varajakshi.

Suddenly, without realizing he had done it at first, he is whirled away in the direction Aldebaran said he could find her.

The shortest of the Arabian brothers was also neither the fastest or the most enduring - but he was perhaps the most dogged and the most surprising. All physical talents waited for life-threatening moments - and this one qualified with how many heartbeats he skipped on his traveling way to her.

When he sees her, she is a beautiful match for the dunes surrounding her. Her white blazoned head, her white gulastra tail, the two hind socks, the flash of the white smear at the inside of her thigh. He feels his mind blank at her beauty again, hears the ringing of shock begin in his ears. At first, there is only a low rumbling nicker, a hint of his voice calling out to her -- then, after a few steps more, a clarion stallion scream full of elation and joy, "Dhaniyā!"