At three years of age, Abraxas had muscled his way into a stallion's physique. Beneath his gleaming champagne coat was the shapely evidence of his commitment to regular sparring, and atop it, marks from his partners that his mother would have wailed over. Though he was not yet fully blooded in battle, Abraxas carried those scars like a royal mantle. When he gazed at his reflection in the water, he lifted his chin and saw himself transformed into someone he did not know. It was unnerving and empowering at the same time, like a mask he had adorned to become who he was supposed to be. This was it — this was stallionhood.

At least, that was what he kept telling himself in order to quell the quiet ripples of unease in his gut. Beginner's luck had been on his side his first spar, but since then, he had floundered every time, outpaced and outsmarted. As much as he prided himself on his scars, they were each a reminder of his failure.

Meanwhile, summer in the Lagoon had been a languid and lazy one. While Abraxas had hummed with unspent energy, searching for sparring partners whenever he could, the Brotherhood's numbers seemed to have crumbled. Familiar faces had vanished. Brax had waited for direction, a missive, a raiding party, anything: the need to prove himself had near-clawed out of him till he was spending his days on the beach, pacing, swimming, digging holes. Each grain of sand became a mountain climbed; each mouthful of salt water became an enemy's blood.

And then, one day, a stranger appeared on the tide. Abraxas wasted no time in pouncing.

"Hey! New boy!" he called with a bright grin, picking up pace into a ground-eating trot across the beach toward the stranger, an overo stallion about his own age. The perfect rival. "Race me!" Brax bounced his hindquarters into the air, his hooves flashing in the sun, and then he was off, racing past the stranger with hair streaming behind him like banners and clods of wet sand flying like shrapnel. After a few paces he threw a glance over his shoulder to be sure the other man had risen to his challenge.