E
veryone is gone. Every single one of them have forsaken her in this world. Her father. Dead. Her mother. Who knew? Ximena? Hadn't seen her littlest sister in months. She drew a ragged breath across her dark lips. How had all of it fallen apart? One moment, it felt as if it all were finally coming together. Then it began to fracture. At first, it was just a hairline crack, but as time spanned from one moment the next the fracture grew, until it was a crevice that separated all of them. And now she is all that is left of her former life. Rumours spread far and wide that her father is dead.
It's not that she was incredibly close to her sire - she had only met him once - other than that her mother had avoided the man. She only spoke ill of him. But in this moment she wishes she could of atleast had him around. It would afterall be better than the nothing she currently has. She flicks her dark tendrils across her hocks and lifts her head defiantly. Little could be done now, and whining about her circumstance wasn't going to change it.
Come on Ella, she whispers to herself and draws her dark gaze from the sea to the dense foliage that grew along the top of the shores.
Her hooves find the well worn path that led from the sea to the in lands. The fading light offers little assistance to the traveling dun mare. The twilight hours would soon rob her of the fading sunlight. She pauses at the edge of small clearing and tilts her chin towards the darkening heavens, where a few lonely stars dot the night sky. The dun mare cautiously treads across the opening toward the pool of water just on the other side. Nervously her ears flick atop her crown and dark eyes flit back and forth. She knew the shadows held all danger, from the prowling mountain lion to the desperate man waiting to scoop her up.
The loud snap in the forest draws her full attention and she freezes like a deer in the headlights. Every muscle is tense, her heart hammers wildly against her ribs and flaring nostrils draw in the various scents that float around her. Wet leaves. Cool water. AND the musk of a stranger. Her dark tipped ears disappear into her knotted onyx mane and her lips curl back to reveal her blunt teeth.
"Reveal yourself!" she warns
"if you think you can herd me off to some land you are mistaken!"
She had made it this long on her own. She didn't need a knight in shining armor.
