A Fresh Breath~ Ghost Horse 2

Chapter #3- Stay with Me

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As the light of a long, tiring day hinted at a close, the only thing on Eagle's mind was seeing Desert again. It had been a struggle acting as if he hadn't been up all night with her the previous night in front of the herd, and the duties he accompanied Spirit with had definitely taken it's toll on his weary body. But it was all worth it to see her again. To smell her mane again. To feel the comfort he had been longing to have back for so long. Staring up into the sky, the stallion waited for the glaring disc of the sun to dip below the horizon so he could once again begin the long journey back to Desert. Just as he was setting off, he heard the soft beating of hooves on the grassy ground behind him. "Eagle? Where are you headed?" It was Echo. Desert's younger brother. The young horse caught up to Eagle, his eyes full of curiosity. "I- uhh... I'm.. just going for a canter to uh... clear my head." Eagle stuttered. He hated lying to Echo, the horse he saw as his own little brother too. Shifting the weight between his hooves as they ached from the long hours he had been running hard on them in the past 24 hours, Eagle glances at everything but into the eyes of Echo. "Oh... mind if I join?" Echo replied slowly and suspiciously. He could tell when Eagle was lying; it was such a rare occurrence. "Ah.. yes of course, always nice having company. I suppose..." Eagle mumbled, as they both set off at a slow canter, the last light shining off their flanks.

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"Where is he? Is he still coming? Did he change his mind??" Desert muttered to herself while pacing back and forth. She had been waiting over an hour, dusk had turned to dark and the only moving shapes she could see were the trees dancing in the breeze of the night. All day she had been thinking about her decision. Should she return home? Would they even want her home after all this time thinking she was dead? Or to stay in a place so comfortable, welcoming, peaceful. It was a home. Just not hers.
She pricked her ears. The faint sound of galloping drifted through them like music. As the sound got closer she began to smell him, sense him. "Eagle! You came!" Desert cried out, meeting him halfway over the hill. "Of course I came, knowing you're alive I counted the seconds until I could saw you again." He sighed, relieved to be with her. "What took you so long, I was so worried you might be hurt or... or changed your mind about me."Desert trailed off, dropping her nose a little as if in shame that she even thought that. "Desert. I would never. I finally have you back and I won't let you go again. Your brother caught me just as I was leaving, so I walked around with him for a bit until he was tired and I could go." Eagle nuzzled his mate, the feeling of her with him again felt like a dream, and if it was he never wanted it to end. "So... I don't suppose you've changed your mind at all since yesterday have you?" Desert asked hesitantly, already seeming to know his answer. "Well... I thought about it. I was almost convincing myself, but I thought about how hard our family took losing you. I don't want to put them through that again, they need me. I'm sorry, Desert. Please just come home." He pleaded with her, the desperation very present in his expression. "I've been thinking too. I'm just so confused I don't know what to feel. On one hand, I miss everyone back home and it's been awful seeing them mourn me. And to be with you everyday again... to see my parents, my brother, my friends. But on the other hand these two leggeds, there's something about them. There's something so different to the way things work around here, I don't have duties, I don't have limits, I don't have the weight of having to follow in the hoof prints of my father as the next leader of the Cimarron herd." Desert turned and back walking slowly back to her new family as she spoke, Eagle following closely beside her. She wanted to remind him of how he felt when he was once a lone horse, and help him again like he helped her see the difference. It seemed the former lone stallion had been stuffed into a mould that he didn't belong in, one of a herd horse, one of a horse who is a follower instead of their own leader. She began retelling the stories he had told her of his previous life, one he had once loved. Eagle stayed quiet, listening intently, lovingly, chuckling at some of his old tales. "Wow... I haven't thought about those stories for a long time. Somewhere, at some point, that part of me got chipped away, Desert. Brushed under the rug. I found you, and everything changed, I wanted to be with you wherever you went and that included becoming part of your herd. I wasn't following myself anymore. I was following you." he murmured, the sound of the leaves crisping and crunching underneath their hooves and the quicksilver pools of moonlight dipping in and out of the trees and lighting their path. The two horses stood at the edge of the trees, gazing down at the native american camp, the horses that fitted the picture so perfectly settling down in pairs or groups. "Let me remind you. Stay with me, a few days that's all I'm asking for." Desert whispered, not taking her eyes off the view. "I'll have to return tonight at least. Let them know I'll be gone a little while." he replied calmly, not wanting to lose her again. "Yes, of course, I understand. I'll be waiting here for you when you get back." the golden and white mare replied, turning to look at him in the eyes that still glistened so brightly even at night. "But for now, this is where I want to be. Right by your side. I won't let you go again my love." he said, staring right back at her with eyes filled with love and trust. Leaning her head closer to his, she whispered back "And I won't leave you again, my love."