The mare picked her way across the rocky desert plain, nudging her daughter ahead of her, turning to cast her gaze behind every now and again. A shadow was lingering, watching, ever distant, and even without catching a scent on the wind, by the twisting of her gut - guilt and anxiety and relief and love (yes, even that, especially that) - the fierce, scarred barb mare knew who it was.

Dared not risk chasing him away by turning for him. Couldn’t bear it if the last time she saw him would be a repeat of history - watching him flee from her again, again, again.

Instead, as she had several places along the border, Shenzi stopped and let loose a bellowing call across the sand. Her vision swam, and she squinted, blinked and the figures that she’d thought she’d seen approaching from the east merely turned out to be tricks of the desert haze. The wind kept turning from her too, so that she only caught a muddle of scents - none she recognised, but still she pressed on.

“Mama,” said the white patched girl who kept trudging forward even without the mare’s prompting. “Are we looking for my father?”

The innocent question earned the girl a snort of derision, and a bark of laughter cut short.

“No, Zuri. Fathers are useless. I am looking for someone far… Far more important. I do not - do not think he is here, but you must keep going.” There was a rough shove, followed by a sharp nip that drew a squeal from the girl, and had her skittering through the desert scrub. Confusion and hurt lodged in her throat - her mother had never nipped her before when she’d been doing her very best to listen - stopping the question from reaching in her lips.

Go where?

After a dozen uneven strides, she turned back, startled by the drumming of hooves that she heard in the air, and felt in the sand - someone was coming upon her quickly, and her mother wasn’t there to defend her.

Some distance back, Shenzi had dropped to her knees, muscles trembling feverishly. Breath catching in her throat as she heard the alarmed squeal of her daughter amidst the thunder that rumbled all around her, Shenzi threw one leg out to try and rise, but the angle was awkward, and her strength was spent. “Run, girl,” she croaked, trying again to rise. Her throat was so dry, and in desperation, she looked to the sky - if only the clouds would break, perhaps the rainfall would reinvigorate her enough to see to it that Zuri found her way to water.

But there was not a cloud in the sky, just the relentless sun beating down on her, and what she’d taken for the rolling of thunder upon the horizon had been the fast approach of one of her own kind, survivors of the arid places that were nothing but merciless.