Desert

The scarred brown mare had lost much in life, but, this past year, she felt she had fought the hard fight and won a little of it back. Her sons she had gathered to herself. Azizi, scarred not unlike his mother, and distant from her still. Tendaji, the one she’d lost, who still woke up uncertain of who he was. And Ahadi, the thirdborn, having grown up struggling with the burdens his brothers carried. And she had sent them away from here, where they would be safe, and beyond the reach of any creature who would wish harm upon them.

The youngest she kept close to her, tucking him out of sight by day, sticking close to monitor for threats, travelling the silver-maned boy by night, when the darkness would help to keep him safe.

She roamed, having lost track of the shadowy figure that had once been all the family she felt she’d had. Prowled the wastes of Salem - skirting the ghosts in the Dunes, haunted by the appearance of the boy at her side, following the faintest traces of scents she caught on the wind. At the cusp of the cool nights, when darkness fell, and Shenzi was half asleep, she jolted into wakefulness at the sight of silver flashing at the edges of her consciousness. But it was only ever lightning pulsing on the distant horizon, or the movement of her own son, and not a flesh and blood warrior of a woman come to have her revenge.

“Where are you?!” She’d bellowed into the night once, fierce and seething, sending the boy fleeing from her side. Only her voice had echoed back to her, before leaving her to drown in silence and shame as she thundered after Kamari, ran him down and pulled him close, tucking him into her chest even as it heaved and hungered for air.

But the season had brought many changes, as it often did. Kamari grew, and she recognised the subtle signs - if she wished, she could carry another child. Butthere was no stallion she desired, and for her own protection - for Kamari's - Shenzi ventured deeper into the wilderness, shying from the approach of any strangers as she traversed Salem, coastline to coastline, driven onward in a search that she was beginning to consider futile.

It was by chance she risked venturing further into the Desert than she had at any point previously, with Kamari at her side, having found their usual little waterhole in these parts undrinkable - the water turned foul by some bird that had drowned in it.

It was early, well before dawn, and she thought to slip into the territory and slake her thirst before departing. Confrontation was the last thing on her mind - she did not want to make trouble for whoever had moved into the barren flatlands.

Something, though, stopped her in her tracks, a scent that seemed so out of place here that the sturdy little mare reacted physically to it, her head jerking up in surprise. “I know you…” Ears slanted back, in uncertainty and confusion, she lingered at the water’s edge, trying to piece together why the King of the Cove had been here recently, slaking his thirst in an unforgiving dustbowl so far from his home.

Behind her, Kamari hovered like a shadow, quiet and uncertain.