.svg/2000px-Google_Chrome_icon_(2011).svg.png){kind=icon}
09-05-2015, 11:55 PM
She couldn’t sleep. Try as she might to tuck her head under a copper wing and doze off, Nasreen was restless. Used to the dense forests of the Edge and her ancestral homeland, the young mare was not yet accustomed to the sparse shrubbery of the desert. Even the central oasis was not much better; she still felt exposed and unsettled—a few palms did next to nothing when it came to sheltering her beneath the open sky. After hours of shifting her weight and refolding her wings, the girl finally accepted her fate: sleep would not come tonight. Rising from her bed in the sand, Nasreen shook lightly, sending a cloud of dust swirling to the ground below, and began to walk. She did not know where exactly she was going, but the Throat was an island and she knew that if she continued in a straight line, she would come across the shoreline sooner or later. Though normally the mare considered it dangerous to travel after dark, there were few natural predators on this desert isle, and tonight the moon illuminated the dunes with enough luminosity to inspire her confidence. Keeping a careful eye out for hunting snakes, Nasreen trotted across the sand, heading for the sea. Perhaps she would arrive in time to catch the sunrise. Without the heat of the sun beating down upon her as she traveled, Nasreen was able to maintain a steady clip, and to her surprise she reached the shore much faster than she had anticipated. A little ways ahead, the mare could hear the calming sound of the waves lapping at the sand, and she quickened her pace, eager to appreciate the sight of the moonlight on the water. Though she had not grown up near the sea in Th’orqui, Nasreen found that the rush of the tide and the ceaseless churning of the waves soothed her—they were a lullaby she had learned during her seasons in the Edge, listening to the sea crash against the base of the high cliffs. Striding forward, she summited the final dune: and there was the ocean, swallowing up the channel between the Throat and the mainland in all of its hungry glory. For several minutes, she paused atop of the mound of sand, light grey eyes surveying the rolling tide. As predicted, the sound of the waves did relax her, and the girl sighed in time with the crashing water, nostrils flaring slightly at the sting of the salty air. It was only when she mindlessly scanned the horizon that the small figure on the opposite shoreline caught her attention. Shaking off the tendrils of sleep, Nasreen strained to see, but her efforts were in vain. Who was this that waited at the gate in the middle of the night? Vaguely anxious, the mare lofted herself into the sky, crossing above the channel to see what was the matter. When she reached the other side, she circled once, taking note of the dark stallion who waited below. He was tall and well-built, but she reasoned that it would be safe enough to land. Should he be dangerous, he lacked the wings to follow her back across the sea. Hoping that there wouldn’t be trouble, Nasreen dropped from the sky. She landed a comfortable distance away, so as not to startle either of them, then called out a quiet greeting with a questioning nicker. “Hello,” her voice rang softly into the night. “Can I help you?” horse:Colourize-Stock.deviantart.com || bg: Dark-Wolfs-Stock.deviantart.com || wings: Chocomix-Stock.deviantart.com & Chunga-Stock.deviantart.com || image: impassioned-dreams.deviantart.com || table by wanda |
Please do not tag Nasreen except for in opening posts and in spars!
