all my fragile strength is gone - Nayl

[Djinni]

djinni

Beneath her feet, the grey sand feels familiar – comfortable.

It is easy to forget that for the past four years she’s lived beneath the forest, her steps cushioned by eons of fallen leaves rather than grainy sand. Here, standing beside the sea, it’s even easier. The wind plays with the dark strands of her mane as the waves stretch ever closer toward her hooves. Out to sea, a bevy of dolphins leap above the steely winter waves.

Djinni doesn’t join them. She is no sleek grey swimmer anymore – her sides are wide with child. Too wide, really, but she remembers the birth of her younger twin siblings and in unconcerned. There are other, worse things to concern herself with these days.

Ivar is away from Sylva more often than he is there, and Djinni knows it is only a matter of time before he stops returning at all. That is the natural way of things – for children to grow up and find their own way. The grullo mare does long for the days when he was a little boy at her side, but she is equally proud of the young man that he is becoming. Like his father, yes, but like himself even more.

She will do her best to make sure that the children she carries now will only be themselves.

Though the beach is empty in this pre-dawn hour, Djinni knows that it will not be so for long. She had appeared here between one cresting wave and the next, so the odds of a patrol finding her are slim. She’s not looking for a patrol though – she is looking for @[Nayl].

all my fragile strength is gone