living beyond your years, acting out all their fears

His intent had been to slip away without a trace, to leave the frosted red mare wondering and wanting. Starscream would return in due time, but for now, at least, there was little left in the lonely Dunes to hold his interest. From a perilous perch atop the highest of the shifting peaks of sand, he’d spied hillcountry to the east, and canyons to the west. The coy copper stallion’s intent had been to cut north to where the dunes gave way to flat desert sands, and then decide which higher ground he’d seek. But a great storm rolled in, cutting him off, and forcing him back. What was a lone stallion to do against such devastating power?

Starscream would do what he’d always done, adapt, and find a way to work his changed circumstances to his favour.

Granted, there seemed nothing favourable about a storm such as this - one that would blind any creature caught up in it if they weren’t careful, or dry-drown them as they suffocated on sand. But Starscream was confident - even if he did not find the red mare before the howling sands caught up with him, it seemed a valid enough reason for disappearing, and if nothing else, the bright-eyes stallion would find ways to make himself useful. I went in search of water, and lost my way in the dune valleys. I’m glad I found you, and that you’re okay.

But fate would have it that he happened upon not his willing companion, but another pair of mares. What luck. They gleamed like beacons in the growing darkness that fell as the storm closed in, one pale figure, another dark but edged with silver. Even at this small distance, with eyes half-closed and squinting against the stinging gale, Starscream could tell it wasn’t her. (But maybe one day soon, it would be. Perhaps he’d find her in the canyons, where he’d scale rock and stone to where she waited and take his place at her side again, to watch another sunset.)

For now, though, all thought was given to the two before him (save for the wry twist of his lips for the memory) and he crept upon them, using the incoming storm as camouflage to mask his approach. Starscream was no fool - if he showed himself too soon, he might be taken as the more immediate threat and be driven off to weather the storm alone. But, if he waited, and came to their aid when the fierce storm was already upon them, the mares would hardly be in a position to drive him off without risking harm to themselves by turning into the raging sandstorm.

Starscream timed it perfectly, or so he smugly thought. Stumbled out of the darkness, gasping and panting, and read well the scene before him, mirroring the grey in the way he curled around the silver bay mare, and what he took to be her son, who still had the uncertainty of youth about him. Tentative and deferential, he bowed his head as he tucked in close, an action with a two-fold purpose. Starscream could play at submission - would do so wholeheartedly if it served to maneuver things to his liking.

He hoped the storm would not abate too soon.

A strange desire, to be sure, especially given the relentless stinging kiss of the sandstorm upon the half of him he had not sought to curl around the silver bay mare and her boy as the boy’s trembling slowly abated. But here, at least they had meager shelter from the date palms to soften the wrath of the roaring wind. And if Starscream had his way, so that perhaps the alpha mare could have her way later, the supposed sacrifice on his part, in sheltering strangers, would endear the refined bay mare to the warmth he offered. Perhaps tucking his muzzle so close to her chest was brazen of him, but surely all would be understood and forgiven in due course.

It would be a shame for the biting sands to mar his deviously pretty face, or dry his tender, wicked lips, with which he’d be all too happy to brush across her hide later in attentive ministration once the storm had passed, if she invited his help to remove the grains of sand that would settle upon her like stars.

xoxo
STARSCREAM