As the sunk sank through a lilac residue into the yawning horizon a calm cool swamped the oasis, a soft zephyr curling through the lush, rich foliage of various ferns, palms and the like. Across the peaceful surface of the shadow-struck water, the murky reflections of two tainted souls before a bleak storm-grey backdrop began to stir and ripple beneath the slight stroke of winter’s warning breath. There was no telling what the next shift of season would bring; Tallsun had been far hotter in the desert; almost unbearably so than the previous, and a great number of the natives who called the scorched sand home claimed it to be a consequence of the Endless Night. Indeed the seasons had been damaged, although baking lizards and their cold blooded serpent cousins felt little the impact of that terrible summer just past.

Windwalker was fine company- easy relief for an ailing conscious and a heart torn by bitter remorse. As they mingled by the lake and he spoke in reply to her suggestion, Africa dipped quivering lips to first brush the water; the pale grey face with pastel-gold eyes so haunting that she could not hold their grip. Thick black lashes tightened together and she was bathed in sudden darkness, in frigid black that allowed naught but the flood of his voice to penetrate her mind- it was a good thing, and she wallowed in the spirit of his ushered words; in their sense and integrity.

Without drinking she lifted her face again, and only then did her shrewd eyes resume their fix, finding the black stallion who had stepped closer; though the quietude washing across them did not fade. She had offered her space to him with the subtle gesture of her maw and she would not revoke one so placid now, for snatching that opportunity. For her, that intimacy; that understanding and closeness to her peers was as powerful as the blood coursing through her veins- as much as contact pained her these days, and amplified the shame she felt, it was so vital for her mental-survival. Still it was not a gift she offered freely.

A smile that she had hardly expected broke the mood building between them- she could not help it; could not steal it back away. He breathed so tenderly into the air billowing around them tenacity that she often felt too. ‘Someday I will master the sky’... The notion sounded so simplistic flowing from the lips of a Pegasus, and as ambitious initially as a duckling learning to paddle. The Oracle turned to him though, with a glazed look of both surprise and curiosity. "You can’t fly?” She asked quickly, the smirk lingering while she entertained the almost gruesome idea that someone was as cursed as she. Africa was not mocking at all.

Africa