XOLANI

The last traces of sunlight died upon the western horizon, stealing away any chance that they might have had to discern the colors dancing across the mare's pelt. All that they might have been able to discern then was a blur of varying shades of grey. Nevertheless, her pale coat shimmered faintly in the moonlight as Xolani smiled encouragingly up at the teal stallion, stars glinting in her pretty blue eyes. Whatever he had to say, she would listen happily, offering her shoulder for him to lean on should he need it. The mare could not help but notice that, even shrouded in darkness, he was quite pleasant to be around.

He spoke of a horrible illness that drove all of Helovia into caverns underground, and she shivered. For all the wonder that this new land held for her, she was quite happy that she had not been around to witness those particular events. He spoke of his parents, briefly, and of a herdland (she gathered that it had not been this herdland, for him to speak so sadly of it). He told her that his mother had been afraid there, and she shivered again, resisting the urge to press against him for comfort. She was supposed to be here for him, not the other way around.

When he told her that his father had allowed him to leave with his mother, seemingly without a second though, the mare sighed sadly. That was a pain that she knew all too well. Her parents may not have left her, true, but they had abandoned her all the same. They had locked her up, kept her a secret, blamed her for their fall from the higher classes of society. They had held her at fault for her mother's inability to bear prettier children; they had suffocated her in their own depression, driven her to the point of madness until she had finally taken it upon herself to leave. They had never wanted her, not since the day she was born. To feel unloved, to feel as Ilios felt about his father... she knew what he felt as intimately as if she had felt it herself.

The mare pressed her muzzle into his shoulder as he trudged on, offering him the gift of her support. She found herself thinking about how strong Ilios must have been to have endured so much even as a child. Again, she felt that there was much that she shared with this stallion, this knight who had saved her, offered her a home and a loving embrace. (Was it love? She couldn't be quite sure. She didn't even know what a parent's love felt like, surely she was simply imagining things...)

As the steed finished his story, he smiled and thanked her; she looked at him, surprised, for why should he be thanking her? All she had done was listen, as anyone would do given the chance. It was she who should be thanking him. He had opened up to her, offered her a piece of himself that he said had not been given to anyone else. The thought warmed her, bringing a shy smile to her face. He pressed closer, so that their chests touched; she reached along his neck, wrapping her muzzle across his withers in a gentle embrace, closing her eyes to better savor the moment.