i dream in phosphorescence Posted on July 23, 2024 at 07:37:53 PM by Helios
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The copper stallion stared unmovingly across the far horizon where the Dunes flattened out into another territory completely. With a deep breath, he mauled over every event that had occurred since he had agreed to taking over the desert land for his predecessor, Antares. Mares had come, and foals had been born. A few of them had been stolen away. Neighbors thought little enough of him to steal away a mare and their child. Strangers came from across the channel to the Crossing and took yet another mare, pregnant with a child he still had not yet met. Rumor told him it was a son, who was painted gold.
Through all of this, he and Niyat had remained distant. She, Antares' daughter, who had chosen to remain behind with him. The cream strands of his forelock blocked his vision to the north then, and Helios acquiesced to the motion of the wind as it pushed him back into the deepest parts of the Dunes. It usually soothed the stallion to run across the sand, kicking it up behind him in his wake. Yet today, it did little more than sting his canons and get tangled within the length of his tail.
He wanted to believe that things on Salem could change and that peace could be brought between the four lords who lived here. To do that, Helios wondered if he must bend the knee -- and perhaps to someone who may not deserve his loyalty -- or if somehow he could be the one to bring about peace between them all for at least a short time. Spring would see the return of Lucifer, and, if the Arabian worked quickly, perhaps there would be help to fend him off before more of his mares and children were stolen away.
The stallion's thoughts turned to Niyat again, and he decided to seek her out. Of all the things that required his action, that was one relationship he thought might need mending. Helios crooned a call for her across the land they both loved, inviting the mare to share some time with him.