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"She knew," I wailed to the heavens as I ran, my hooves scrabbling to gain traction on the hardpacked sand in the valley of the dunes. "She knew what she was doing."

I had seen it in her eyes, although I had not known what it was at the time. My mother was a woman of few words, and so I had learned to read the nuances of her body language before I was even old enough to cross the Dunes alone. I knew the way her eyes crinkled when she was truly happy, and the way her temple would bulge when she was frustrated. I knew the way when she laughed - truly laughed, she would close her eyes in merriment, and when she was irritated with him, she would pinch the inside of her left cheek.

She had faced the murderer of my sire with determination in her eyes, but in that singularly pivotal moment, as his hooves came down and stole her from me, it was not fury or fear on her face.

It was relief.

"She knew," I said more softly, the words hitching in my throat. I was determined not to cry; I wanted to be something that she would be proud of as her soul ascended but it was so hard to keep it together. Flashes of those terrifying seconds kept playing on repeat in my mind, driving my relentless escape into the dark. The too-still feeling of my father's still-warm cheek. The anger in the eyes of the grey-coated stranger. The sickening silence that followed the sound of impact as his hooves struck her temple. The finality of the thud as her body joined my father's on the floor. The high-pitched keen of my own voice as I fled in terror.

I had not even waited to see if my mother was truly dead. I had known from the moment she had fallen to the ground. And even if I was wrong, what was I to do against that monster? Even with the pale white mare to intervene, I knew that I was not enough. I was not strong enough to stop him. Nor was I well-spoken enough to convince him to spare me. At best, I could offer to soothe the wounds my own father had left across his body like some sort of twisted peace offering, and I was not willing to do that.

So I had fled without a word. I ran until my hooves began to stumble, and even then I ran until my limbs gave out entirely, sending me into an ungainly crash that left furrows in the sand behind me. From here, with only the sky above to hear my sorrow, I wailed.

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