Although the family had returned, and Sakhmet stayed close to them, she did not stay so close as a child would. The pale mare had spent the majority of her adult life as a nomad, drifting across the sands as if lost at sea. She knows they watch her just as closely, as if she might disappear like a mirage. The desert born mare would be lying if she didn’t think the same of them.


It is Aldebaran’s whistle of warning that makes Sakhmet lift her head from the sparse grass she had been plucking at. Head turning, her mismatched eyes settled upon the intruder as she breaks from the sea and almost immediately heads her way. Sakhmet would like to say she is surprised, but truthfully, she is not. With the fights Nyimara has been battling, it leaves little to wonder how they have now been mixed up in it, and why Sakhmet picks this particular spot to graze. Because just like this intruder, it makes the grey mare the first they spot. Not the younger members racing along the dunes further inland, or the adults hanging out at the oasis.


Ears lacing back into her wind tossed mane, Sakhmet squares her shoulders as she arches her delicate neck and picks up a trot (anything else would waste energy she needed for the battle) to meet the stranger closer to the shore. Not allowing her to reach further inland where she might see someone else. But before Sakhmet can meet the painted woman who clearly thought she might steal her away, Antares interferes and the skirmish ensues.


All Sakhmet can do is hang back, making sure to stay out of the way so she didn’t hinder the stallion attempting to keep her safe.


Just as quickly as it starts, it ends. They are left watching the defeated mare retreat back to the waters in which she had come from. If Sakhmet had known the relations between her and Ra, the grey mare might as driven her faster into the clutches of the sea with a few extra bite marks upon her rump. Instead, she turns her brown and blue eyes upon Antares, giving him a quick look over to make sure nothing too serious had been done. Satisfied nothing too serious afflicted him, she allowed her ears to unbury themselves as Aldebaran leaves and Antaras addresses her for the first time.


“I should be asking you that, but you appear to be fine…?” Sakhmet replies, though her tone leaves it as a lingering question. In case there is something deeper that she can’t see upon his flesh. “You fought well, and have done more than enough.” the grey mare replies, giving a respectful dip of her head. Although it would have been easier to have let her fight her own battle, or to have allowed the painted mare to take her away, Antares had stood in the way and prevailed. Sakhmet had never expected anything less of him.