A Fresh Breath~ Ghost Horse 2

Chapter #1 - Is it really you?

~If you haven't read the first book I suggest you do so in order for some of this to make sense; and if you have read the first book, thank you for checking out the second! x~

"Hello again, darling."
"D-desert..?! Is it really you?" Eagle stammered, mesmerised at the sight of his supposedly dead mate. His eyes swept over her shimmering coat, fresh as if merely old, her groomed mane, tangle free and upholding a braid and.. a feather? The stallion was too shocked to notice the differences. Her ebony black hooves, the familiar sandy patches embroidered into her silken pale coat.
With brimming emotions, Eagle stumbled forward towards the young mare, whinnying his joy.
"Oh how I've missed you!" He cried, throwing his neck over hers, nuzzling her as he spoke. At first, not seeing her mate for over a year, Desert was taken aback by the sudden, exaggerated expression of love. But within seconds of his comforting, loving embrace, she melted into him. "I've missed you too, Eagle." She nickered, gently pressing their muzzles together and gazing into his melting brown eyes. At that moment, it felt as if no time had passed. As if they had always been tight together, spending time getting to know the members of the herd again. "Where have you been, what have you been doing! Oh, the herd's going to be thrilled to see you're still alive! We have to get back to them before they wake, especially Echo! I told him I'd seen you, heard you! But he never believed me and now-" Eagle began rambling, his excitement rolling off his tongue. "No!" Desert cut him off. Tension returned to her muscles, skin taut, head high. "No, Eagle. I can't go back. Not after all I've been through here. I've got another family. These, are my family now." She gestured to the horses surrounding them, who had been watching their reunion. Eagles heart sank. His sorrow-filled eyes stared back into hers. "But.. why? Why do you want us to think you're dead? Why do you want your father believing he's the reason you're gone?! Desert are you insane? ..what about me? Do we not mean anything to you now?" His voice trailed as the anger was replaced with hurt. Ideas racing through his mind of what could possibly be worth giving up the family she had loved for 5 years.
"No, Eagle I don't mean it like that. I still love you, I always have! It's taken all my strength not to race back to you and tell you I'm okay. It's awful watching you change, adapt to life without me. All of you. And it's through no fault of your own. I chose to do this. Mostly." She whispered to him; her voice cracked with emotion, remembering all the times she had watched her family cry from the shadows. All because of her. Eagle was silent. He looked down. "Desert, please. Just explain to me. Explain what happened to you, what you've been doing, why? I need answers before I leave. And.. don't worry. I promise I won't say anything to them that you're alive. No matter how much I want to. Whatever your reasons are, knowing you they must be important. So, go ahead. Talk to me."
And so she did. The other horses dispersed, Desert took Eagle down a calm, gentle route through the trees, dew still dripping from the canopy above, the morning light bouncing off the pair's coats. Their hoofbeats muffled by the damp grass, she began her story.
"Okay, all those months ago, with my Dad, I really did fall. But not as bad as everyone thought. There was so much mulch on the ground, wet mud and grass, it cushioned my fall to a certain extent. I was too weak to respond to my father when he came down, or anyone else for that matter! If I'm honest I didn't think I would make it and just kind of... slipped into a sleep. I woke groggy and spluttering; I'd washed up from the river and didn't recognise anything around me, until I noticed a couple of horses standing a little way away. I don't remember too much of the journey, but I know they helped me back to a camp of some sort... I ended up surrounded by two-leggeds and in a corral. As the days went on, the two-leggeds treated my wounds and after about a month I was almost good as new. I began to trust them and their strange ways. I've encountered them before but not in the same way, my life had been in their hands. I didn't have a choice in trusting them. That's where I got this." Desert shook her mane gently and revealed the long eagle feather in which had been fused in with her hair. "How.. how did you even get that?" Eagle leaned in for a closer look at the feather, confused. "Little Creek. The boy. He's the one who took care of me; the feather is like a symbol that he's always with me. The other horses are like a herd. I'm part of that now. I trust those two-leggeds as if they were one of us! Come on Eagle, you've been here before, haven't you? You trusted them before. Stay here with me! I don't want to lose you again." Desert stopped walking. She turned back and stared into Eagle's coal black eyes, her own filled with hope and plea. The air was filled with silence for several moments. The hope began to slip from Desert's eyes and was replaced with sadness. She could tell his answer from the look on his face. "Desert, I ... y-you know I couldn't... I miss you. So much. But I couldn't." His voice was pained.

"You don't belong with their kind. You have a herd to lead, a family that thinks you're dead! Don't they deserve to know you're okay? For you to return home to them?" Eagle tried to plant a grain of sense into his love's mind. "But Eagle... This is my home now. This is my family now. You can't tell the others I'm alive, they'll come looking and try and drag me back! There's nothing left for me in that herd but this... this is new, exciting! The herd was my past, this is my future." Desert replied, her heart breaking inside as she realised Eagle may not stay with her. The two stared into each other's eyes, a sadness engulfed them as if a fog that captured the air around them. Surely this wasn't it?