when the stranger speaks again, the words feel like cotton in his head, thick and meaningless…the black kladruby stud tries blinking, shaking his massive head just a little to clear the tangled mess of thoughts… of impossibility. the whole thing seemed so implausible that lukasz was having trouble processing any of their conversation. the lagoon… what exactly was it again? something he was lucky not to be involved with it sounded like. perhaps part of why the stranger had nearly run into him… he lifts a large hind hoof, setting it gently on the toe to rest, but his ears turn warily back as he tries to think. someone i used to know, his mind says in response. a ghost. it had been how many years since he had seen Božena? or any of his rodina for that matter… many years. he had spent at least two years searching… why now? after he had given up hope… his dark eyes drift away, lost again for a moment, but as the spotted stranger repositions, lukasz jerks back to attention. this time he flinches at the name, a visceral reaction that he can’t hide or ignore. his tone is abrupt, almost cold. ”my sestra… she was my sister.” he is quick to glance away again, irritated by his outburst. ”perhaps there is some mistake.” he mutters this quietly, though he knows there cannot be. though hope is here, firmly within his grasp, lukasz refuses to grab hold of it. he tries to calm his stormy expression, half-heartedly anyway, the effort of it costing him any of the nonchalant posture he had achieved earlier. all four hooves press deeply into the soft meadow floor tensely. ”how is it you know her then?” one other question sings in his soul, crying out though he cages it in deftly… it echoes in his heart, painfully. is she alone? it would be more than he ever dreamed of, not to be alone anymore, but still his heart aches for more. for the rest of them. his whole rodina united again. his bratry.
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