“she smells like lemongrass and sleep
she tastes like apple juice and peach”

Sabran returned her sister’s thankful grin with a smile of her own and a bob of her head. It was nothing to cover for her sisters, at least with a little white lie. It was all the more worth it, of course, to be repaid in tales and gossip at the end of one of her more adventurous sisters’ expeditions.

And so she listened, her eyes wide and ears pricked stiffly forwards, as Arkana spoke. A traveller, then. He sounded mysterious and exotic, certainly to such young girls who hadn’t ever travelled further than the Crossing before. If he was going to come and visit, Sabran wondered if she might get to meet him.

She was so busy thinking about it that she didn’t quite register what Arkana was saying for a moment. Then, flustered, she ducked her head and shook it hard from side to side. If she could have blushed, she would have been bright red.

“I don’t know about that!” she squeaked, the words tumbling out of her mouth almost faster than she could form them.

Romance was something that, like many young girls, held a fascination for Sabran. Unlike many, however, Sabran viewed it with a kind of absent-minded curiosity – a kind of fantasy that was fun to hold at a distance, but not something she ever actually considered pursuing herself in any meaningful way.

She made a face and tried to redirect her sister’s attention.

“I don’t think being approached by handsome strangers is much my speed. But maybe I could meet yours – make sure he’s got good intentions and all that,” she offered with a giggle, half-joking. “When’s he coming to visit?”

SABRAN
mixed ☽ bay varnish roan ☾ 14.3hh