i want to be the spark in your eyes Posted on July 26, 2024 at 00:28:43 AM by Rhoxane
Rhoxane had been in a state since Sakir had come to her. Concern had drawn every that could be drawn in her face as her eyes took in the appaloosa's battered form. Shock, fear, and dread followed quickly as her chosen mate told the story of what had happened: how a stranger had come to the Badlands and challenged for her after spying her from afar, and then how that stranger had won.
Rhoxane would liked to have thought that she steeled herself for the journey as the forward motion of her legs drew the young mare deeper and deeper into the saltwater. The golden mare had stopped when the water reached the tops of her legs and looked forlornly back over her shoulder at Sakir, who was still standing there on the beach. Her blue-green eyes shimmered in the harsh light of the afternoon as she took in the details of his face, committing them further in her memory.
With an expression somewhere between hope and sadness, Rhoxane had turned away to follow the calico man into the sea. As they swam, the stranger began to speak to her. "Sometimes the only way to grow a herd is to steal from others." She said nothing. "I was visiting Salem and noticed a new stallion had moved into the Badlands. That is what brought my eyes to you." Her eyes -- reddened by harsh saltwater and the first of her tears -- shut tightly.
She didn't want to hear his explanations, his excuses for taking her from her home in the Badlands, but the mare had little choice but to listen to him speak as they slowly crossed between Salem and the Crossing Isle. "But I plan to give you the same offer I gave the last mare I fought for." Her eyes flick to the stallion, watching him swim forward with his head raised above the water's surface. An offer?
"We are going to a rather cold island called Tinuvel. An island that has known me as its Prince and now knows me as a leader of one of its territories." Her eyes roll, signifying her annoyance with the way he drops his proposed status into the one-sided conversation. "Though I doubt you care about all that right now." A snort from exertion shot out of her, the sun revealing the veins in the tender membranes of her flared nostrils. Rhoxane does not make eye contact with the stallion, focusing instead on trying to make it to the other side.
"Here's what I propose. We have a month to get to know each other before your stallion can come for you." Her lungs were burning. Fluted ears flicked away at the water as some of it flushed into an ear canal. "If you find I am not someone you see yourself with, then you will be free to go. I just ask for the chance to get to know who you are first."
"If by some chance you find you do like me. Then make the Inlet your new home." A month. A month a world away from home, and she had no say about it until the end. Anger flared through the golden mare at the thought. Her voice was strained. Everything about her was; it didn't help that a cramp was starting to clench in her right hind stifle.
"I will say this as clearly as I can," she heaves gracelessly. Each word is pointed now in her anger. Rhoxane had never left home. Not when Sakir came, or when the herd left, or when her mother disappeared. She hadn't left before that when her second birthday passed that previous spring. If he had not gotten greedy at the sight of her shimmering in the desert sunlight, she would still be there, celebrating the life that now likely stirred within her. "The Badlands are my home. Always have been, always will be."
Rhoxane could never see herself trading the sun and the heat for the frost and snow of the north. The arid desert of Salem had baked into her bones long ago. It was not willingly that she would ever leave the island. The golden girl fell silent then and would focus completely on the rest of the swim to the Crossing until their hooves finally found purchase on solid ground.