It was quiet. Late. The water lapped the shoreline in a lazy, calming rhythm that could soothe most troubles.
Zevulun stood just out of reach from the water stretching up the pebbled beach before it pulled back out again. His eyes - pale, blue ice like that of his birth home - lifted from the water to the stars, and he sighed.
He was older now, and grown into himself. Handsome as ever, but absent his jovial grins and playful spirit. Something had made him tired, and it wasn’t just the sleepless night he was having now. It was the sort of weariness that came with deep, unsolvable sorrow.
“Dad?” Softly spoken, but the voice was grown.
Zevulun’s right ear twitched and he turned his head just enough to see the paler of his twin sons walking toward him.
“Raziel.” He said fondly, quietly, and with love. He sighed a warm breath and affectionately reached out to nibble at Raziel’s pale mane as he drew close. His lips scratched down to his wither, but rather than get lost in a bonding grooming session, he pulled his head away and looked forward again. Raziel sweetly tapped his muzzle to his father’s shoulder, then looked forward as well.
Across the waters, just barely visible, were the large, looming shapes of the islands.
“Do we have to go there?” Raziel finally asked after some silence.
“Why don’t you want to go there?” Zevulun asked with curiosity, and looked again at his son.
Fully grown now, Raziel and his brother Ramiel were handsome stallions of their own right. At any point they could have found somewhere populated to set up a herd, a home. But they stayed with their father, and Zevulun was privately grateful for that. He needed them, especially after… Well...
“No reason.” Raziel shifted his weight, hooves pressing into the small pebbles that made up the beach.
“You’re lying.” Zevulun said, but it was soft and without a bite. He didn’t understand why his pale son was so nervous to return to the islands, though he assumed it must’ve had something to do with the prior reason their blood had left.
“Caught me.” Raziel said with a wry grin. The pair shared a glance, their smiles grew, but there was a bit of sadness in their eyes too. They looked back out over the water.
“Do you ever think about her?” Raziel asked into the silence after it had stretched on for a few minutes.
Zevulun snorted and shifted his weight. “Every day.” His eyes narrowed on the distant islands, that familiar, dull ache spreading through his chest. He looked back at their son. “Do you?”
“No.” Raziel said, but Zevulun could hear the truth in the hurt that rested in that one word. Then, Raziel sighed. “I am haunted by-“
“Hey! No one told me we were getting up already!” Sleepily, Ramiel’s voice loudly disturbed the quiet that’d been shared between his father and brother. He yawned and walked up beside Raziel, nipping playfully at his mane and giving it a little tug once he caught a few strands. Raziel snorted and jerked his head away, snapping his white tail against his brother with ease for how close they stood.
Zevulun smiled, but his eyes went to his more quiet, studious son. What had he been about to confess? He opened his mouth to ask, but saw the look in Raziel’s eyes. He didn’t want to talk about it now that Ramiel was here.
Well, that was strange… as far as Zevulun understood it, his sons were the closest he’d ever seen two horses. What troubled Raziel so greatly that he kept it away from Ramiel, too? Zevulun made a note to find time to ask Raziel about it later, when chance would find them alone together again.
“We weren’t getting ready to leave yet, Ramiel.” Zevulun assured him, then glanced back toward the horizon. “We we’re just…”
“Preparing.” Raziel finished.
“Oh, okay.” Ramiel said, though his blue eyes lingered briefly on his brother before flicking over to their father. “Where are we going first?”
“The Commons. Somewhere safe, like the Falls.”
Raziel stiffened, chewed the air, then shifted his weight and relaxed again.
“Oh… not Tinuvel?” Asked Ramiel, disappointment in his tone.
“We’ll return to Tinuvel in due time. We need to understand how the islands have changed since we were last here. The best place to do so will be the common grounds. We’ll see who we might run into… and what they can tell us.” He glanced back at his sons and reached over Raziel to gently lip at Ramiel’s rich, gold skin. Then, he turned and walked slowly away from the beach. “Come on, let’s get back into the trees to sleep. We’ll need our rest before we return.”
- - - - - - - - -
They waited until just before noon before they took to the surf. With bellies filled that morning on what sparse, winter grazing they could find, their legs crashed into the cold waters and they charged onward until their hooves left the ground and they strained their necks to keep their head above the ocean. They swam with powerful kicks that pushed them toward the Common island, which loomed larger the closer they drew.
Water rolled off their bodies and dappled the sand on the beach they walked up, hair wet and sticking to their coats. The chilly air made them shiver slightly as they shook what water they could off their body, but born of Tinuvel this cold meant little to them.
Zevulun lead the way to the Falls with ease. It may have been years since he last trekked the Commons, but he hadn’t forgotten them. Ramiel and Raziel followed, though neither told their father they knew exactly where they were going. The closer they got to those familiar falls, the more Ramiel realized his brother was looking and listening everywhere, constantly glancing in each direction as his ears twitched. Ramiel frowned and opened his mouth to ask Raziel what - or who - he was looking for, and why.
Zevulun reached where the trees gave way into the open common grounds that surrounded the large, beautiful falls that drew horses from all over the islands. He didn’t come quietly, either, but bellowed a loud whinny to announce his and his sons arrival. Noticing Ramiel’s glance, Raziel snorted and picked up his hooves to increase his gait just enough to trot out into the open. He just wanted space between them so he wasn’t asked a question he wasn’t ready to answer.
The three stallions settled to grazing on what could be found, though their eyes occasionally reached for strangers and tried to figure out who could be approached, and who they could learn of the current state of affairs from.
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