don't wanna wash you away
i swear there's good things that are coming your way
While irritation had become what Raziel was long before his twin brother was taken from the Prairie it had settled even deeper, more permanently into his bones and into his heart once he’d learned Ramiel was gone. With anger like fire in his tone he’d threatened their father, saying he would be swimming to Salem to stay with Ramiel wherever he was forced to go, but Zevulun had firmly told him his duty was to stay here. The Prairie needed eyes to protect it.
Raziel disagreed. There seemed to be a myriad of scents of stallions these days among the grasses and though he made certain to stay away from them, he was more than sure they were capable of protecting things if trouble came about. Why did father need him specifically?
Furthermore, as the days crawled by and Ramiel’s absence was felt more and more by his twin brother, Raziel grew angry with him, too. There was no reason Ramiel could not have come and found Raziel before he’d had to leave for Salem. He could have at least told him what was happening so it wouldn’t have been such a shock to find out later on; he could have at least told him goodbye.
But who was he kidding? Since the trio had returned to the island years ago Ramiel had settled very happily into life among the Prairie hills while Raziel felt more and more at a loss. All he wanted was the endless stretch of the Mainlands again; he wanted air that didn’t taste of sea salt brine; he wanted to place the faces, names, and memories of those here far, far behind him where they could not and did not matter any more. Somewhere out there was his son, though Raziel did not know where he’d gone and told himself he didn’t care. Orphiel had never cared for him (and he had reason for that), so there was no point seeking him out and learning what his life had become. Raziel had nothing here… nothing but the duty he was blood-bound to follow. It wasn’t even strictly because of their father, but because of Ramiel. Ramiel told him they would stay here and they wouldn’t go elsewhere, that this was their home now. As much as Raziel loathed it, he would not argue with his twin.
“Hello?”
A voice, distinctly feminine, broke through the endless cycle of his angry thoughts. Raziel barely lifted his head, blue eyes peering beneath the long, frizzled strands of his tangled forelock. It didn’t take him long to see the deeply colored purple-red mare with her fire-like hair and, despite his disinterest in personally knowing the horses in the Prairie, he knew enough and was certain he’d never seen this mare before. Still clinging to the shadows of the cottonwood he was resting under, Raziel glanced beyond her and around them, hoping he’d see another horse of the Prairie come to greet her.
Unfortunately for them both it seemed that, for now, he was the only one close enough to take note of her presence. Initially he thought he’d just turn his ears back if she looked at him, make her keep walking until she came across someone else, but he remembered it’d been a mare who’d fought his father to take Ramiel away and so, begrudgingly, Raziel started to walk toward her.
“Who’re you?” He asked not that kindly once he’d drawn closer to her, his ice-blue eyes regarding her with a heavy and somewhat distrustful air. “I haven’t seen you near the Prairie before. What do you want?”
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