Djinni has never been hard.
She is sand in every sense; a multitude of pieces held together by wind or rain or gravity. She blended into her Beqanna life as easily as a grain of sand fits with the dunes, and was gone with the wind in the next instant. After a while – after her parents had gone, and then her sisters, and finally her brothers – only one thing had kept her coming back.
He’s before her now, saying hello as though they do it every day (and they do!) and she wonders for the first time why she had ever felt the need to leave.
Not long ago she had told Stillwater she was bored. That was true in Sylva – and is true in Nerine too – but it is not true here. Not with Walter, who has spent decades on her mind; never with Walter.
“Would you rather I leave again?” she asks with a smile, finding the humor in what he says. “I’m sure the gulls could keep you company.”
Djinni is very still as he reaches out – careful to not spook him – and when she moves to press her shoulder against his she does so slowly, so that if he were to shift away they could pretend it never happened. The grullo mare looks out at the sea, enjoying the crash of the white foam against the grey beach, and then looks back at Walter’s empty side.
“Do you want them back?” She asks. “I could give them to you.” It is an offer, not a trade. She’s shown more of herself to Walter than to anyone, and she watches him carefully for a reaction. Djinni has never wielded magic the way that magicians do, but she has her tricks, and she wants Walter to feel truly himself. She had been trapped on this beach for nearly six months – unable to do anything but walk around in her own grullo skin – she does not want to keep him here against his will.
slim build
smoky grullo minimal tobiano
brown eyes