yael

Maybe it’s the stuttering or the shallow wounds that trigger a brief flashback. Not to her arrival at B’kanna’s gates and her overwhelming need for water - any water - but to a tottering, nearly forty year old mare who was reduced to a child in the face of the most extreme example of adversity. For this, she should not be shamed, though one would have a hard time telling Yael that and making her believe it. Standards for herself are higher than she would ever bestow on others. In this case, there is an immediate sense of connection with the girl, a feeling that she knew almost exactly what she was going through, even if the details weren’t entirely the same.

The first emotion the little mother recognizes is fear and uncertainty. No, she is not here to hurt or capture or distress the girl in any way. Yael tries to keep her movements fluid, her body posture as relaxed as she can - perhaps even pulling her wings in against a lithe and narrow Akhal frame, to make herself seem smaller than usual. For now, her blindness goes unnoticed. Surprise, then, and she isn’t quite sure why. Her appearance? Yael is rather refined and lovely, easy on the eyes and her black accents add a certain amount of exoticism to gilded fur and hair the color of tangible moonlight But she is nowhere near the most fanciful of Xelovia’s inhabitants.

The golden mare crosses the fair-haired filly’s path, and when she cannot even raise her gaze to meet Yael’s gaze, she lowers her own head so they can be eye to eye. But then she looks up, and Yael smiles, extending a proverbial hand towards the stranger. Softly, with soothing tones that might even have a bit of a motherly coo to them, questions are answered and asked. “You are een Xelovia, child. Come now, I’m not going to xurt you… My name ees Yael,” Yah-el, she says, smoothing the syllables together as if she weree hiding a baby hiccup. “I vas een your poseetion not too long ago.” I know how this goes, she means. You are not alone.

“And I xappen to know a very nice lady xoo vould be xappy to look at your vounds, eef you like.” She does not press for any information, hoping that it will be given freely. Nor does she try to persuade the girl to stay - not yet, at least. Plenty of time for that after they get her taken care of and cleaned up.