They’re looking to her for promise, for hope. They want her to prosper and to bring their home to a peak of power. They, like her, want greatness.
Nayl didn’t miss the glance they shot to each other. The stallions betrayed their hesitance by looking at one another when she had admitted they have a purpose. They fear the worst, but she isn’t the menace that they expect. She isn’t as cruel as they assumed her to be, but she will admit to being stern. Unlike Naga - unlike many previous Queens – Nayl is stern and she will be an austere ruler. She will allow stallions to roam, but very few and they will be hers (only hers).
Simeon likely expected her for this reason. He knows that he will serve somehow, but no one is certain of the details. No one can even delve into her mind and thumb through her thoughts and ideas. They were left wondering when she dismissed herself from the group.
And so, she quietly takes her place at his side with her fiery eyes trained on the ocean in front of them. His name tingles the tip of her tongue and she takes note of the easy grin that slips across his lips when she speaks. My Queen, he says, and she cannot deny the thrill that electrifies her body. The power – the crown – is finally hers, and he respects that. He welcomes her to his silent musings and compliments the day with a languid statement that lures Nayl to look at him. She doesn’t respond, not yet, but she half-heartedly chuckles beneath his searching eyes.
But there is a pause before he answers her and speaks briefly of himself, of what he is and where he is from. Nayl closely listens, but her curiosity peaks when he mentions Scorch. Her heart leaps and suppressed memories suddenly rush back. Nayl truly smiles then and her eyes soften in a most unfamiliar way. ”Scorch,” she tastes the mare’s name with adoration while quickly disregarding Hestoni (she never knew the stallion although she has heard the name in the whispers of the wind back in the Jungle). ”I knew Scorch,” she finally adds with a roll of her muscular shoulders, ”she was my aunt.”
Family. She has family.
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