There has been a time or two that the stallion’s scent wafted into her nostrils. She never pursued it as she has never been truly comfortable in the company of males, but her mindset has since changed. No longer does she avoid them; she originally considered them distractions to her ambitions, but she’s determined that she can have both. They have their purposes just as she has her own. Mother – what a failure she had been – let stallions lure her away from the Jungle quite often and so Nayl associated males with failure. They clouded judgment, she once told herself, but she has since grown and realized how wrong she was.
Once, she would have dodged his company, but now she finds herself drawn to him. He watches the sunrise from the sandy shore, and Nayl stands behind him watching the same. Shades of scarlet, orange, and yellow glisten on the restless waves. It’s truly a beautiful sight to behold and, finally, Nayl is seeing the shore as more than just a place of death (she reflects on her parents swollen corpses on the beach). It still tastes bitter if she tries to call it home because she has only ever known the Jungle, but perhaps time will change her outlook just as it had with stallions.
”Beautiful, isn’t it?” Her voice is sultry but fiery, a lethal temptress. When he looks at her she smiles coyly and inclines her head just slightly. ”I’m Nayl,” but he may already know that, ”and you?” His scent is all that registers; she is only just now beginning to meet the stallions who have decided to live here in Nerine. They need to all come together, to cognize one another, if they want Nerine to flourish. A breath catches in her throat as she watches a pelican dive into the sea and rise moments later with fish and water in its mouth. For a long moment, she watches until it fades from her line of sight in which she rolls her attention back to the stallion. ”What’s weighing so heavily on your mind?” He had been admiring the sunrise, but it’s during those tranquil moments that the mind is often busiest. She would know; she has been alone in Nerine for months.
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