At the sound of someone fast approaching, Leander stumbled on the shale beneath his hooves. “Wait,” he tried weakly, though he wasn’t entirely sure the stranger could hear him over the clatter of the rocks underfoot. Hey! The call rang out in an exact echo of the black mare’s shout in the Forest only days earlier. This time, however, it was a stallion coming after him; and as the stranger ascended nearer still, the white of his eyes flashed fearfully.
“Stay back!” he croaked, remembering just how quickly the disease had latched onto Element by mere proximity. Instinctively, his wings unfurled and began to momentarily lift him from the mountainside – but the effort proved to be too great as his lungs squeezed and a sickly cough wracked his body. It rattled through him as he landed heavily once more, his breath wheezing past flared nostrils as he shook his head. He didn’t recognize the oncoming cremello, though he didn’t expect to; Leander hadn’t been in Hyaline long enough to familiarize himself with any other residents before he’d left for Pangea on that fateful day.
His blonde forelock splayed wetly across his face, obscuring the star on his forehead which was so like his mother’s. How it would have broken Rayelle’s heart to see him like this now. “I’m already sick,” he explained hoarsely, though there wasn’t any need. Propping his exhausted weight against the craggy wall, Leander closed his eyes to ward off the pit in his stomach as he hoped the stranger would have the good sense to leave – and quickly. After all, he had to believe that there was still a chance that Litotes could save himself before it became too late for him, too.
