Ramiel’s ears flicked back briefly at her choice of words. He wasn’t withering away in the Prairie, was he? Ramiel reflected on his time watching over his younger siblings, watching them grow and go off on adventures of their own. For a moment he considered it with fondness, but the unfortunate truth was staring him right in the face. They weren’t his children.

Ramiel wanted love. A family. Where most stallions craved multiple mares to spread their bloodline (his father not excluded), Ramiel wanted to spend his time with only one. Even when he found this mystery mare, he didn’t imagine himself carving out time in one particular place for too long. His dream had been to travel, to find another soul who craved the carefree, untethered life that he did.

Being settled in the Prairie reduced his chances of finding that life. Any mare within its borders was either a love interest of his father’s or one of the other stray stallions who called the Prairie home. Ramiel did not venture from Luthien and seek out the beloved of his dreams. He fretted over Raziel’s decline in mood and reaffirmed his vows to be a good son to his father and to be there for whatever his father needed.

But he had enjoyed his time here in the Dunes. Nyimara was right.

“Well, you pose a lot of good questions.” He admitted with a small smile. “I’ve felt like I owe my family, especially my father, since we returned to the island years ago… but maybe I let that become an excuse to grow comfortable. When we first came to the islands I met a mare I fell in love with quite quickly, and then one day she was gone… I didn’t want to admit how difficult it was for me to move past her loss.” Ramiel was aware of how soft such a confession would make him appear but, truly, that was who he was. “I don’t think I belong among your herd,” he admitted, “you seem to admire a caliber of stallion that it is not in my nature to be.” The soft lover. The poet’s soul.

“I can’t be so pretty that you can look past that.” Ramiel found himself teasing somewhat, a smile growing at the corners of his mouth.


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