Zahra

My boy is troubled. He drinks his alcoholic drink like water, and stumbles while leading me from my stall.

Where is he taking me? He said he was going to free me.

Moments like this almost make me want to communicate with him.

Cloaked, he walks with me from his house and to the walls of Kanan, to the great gate.

I don't dislike Mahmud. I know him to be kind in the days I've spent with him. He's tried his best to break me in, but hasn't beaten or frightened me while attempting to do so.

Horse shifters do not let others ride them. I've been brought up to believe it's obscene just to think of letting a normal human degrade us in such a way, but now as I watch Mahmud sadly lead me out to set me free, because his heart is too gentle to hurt me, I fear I might break for him.

"I'm no good, Luna," Mahmud slurs, as he trudges outside the city gates into the sand, headed towards a mountain range stretching out to the north. "There's Mount Goran." He points ahead of us. "You'll like it there. Lots of other wild horses to run with."

I don't want to be with other wild horses because I'm not a normal horse. Humans and horses are dangerous to ones such as I. Those men in red saw me as an abomination needing to be extinguished perhaps for this very reason.

"Luna, do you wanna know what I'm gonna do?" Mahmud asks, a lopsided grin on his pubescent face. "I'm gonna sacrifice myself to the gods!" He unsheathes a knife from his belt and holds it high.

I stamp my front hooves down into the sand to halt us, my gaze fixed on the knife.

"Wha?" Drunk Mahmud asks, lowering the knife to his throat and making a cutting motion.

Flashbacks of my parents' deaths explode. "No! Stop it!"

Mahmud's eyes widen at me.

By Eshra, I said that out loud!

"Did you just speak?" Mahmud won't stop staring at me. He lowers his knife from his throat. "Gods, I'm going mad. Like Kan who talks to jackals."

He tugs at my lead rope and replaces the knife in its sheath. "Come with me, Luna. You will be my witness."

I follow him, despite the urge to gallop away wearing his halter.

Why don't I just run away now? Why am I following him up the mountain on his suicide mission?

I shouldn't care, but I do.

Mahmud

Luna spoke to me. I could swear on everything holy she spoke to me.

Maybe it's the demon I'm possessed by, trying to get me to not go through with the sacrifice. Afraid they will lose their vessel.

Finally, as the first hints of light peers over the mountains, I reach the stone steps leading to Hashmal, our sacred table of sacrifice. The gods of Kanan do not require human sacrifices like the gods of Bandul, but I am no human. I shall make right what my parents could not. I will purge myself from Kanan.

Luna follows me up the steps, the whites of her eyes visible as she stares at my knife. We reach the great table of Hashmal and I draw my knife from my belt.

By now the alcohol has worn off, but I've come this far and I am determined.

I slide Luna's halter off her face and toss it aside. "Go, be free," I say, patting her soft cheek for the last time. I do not cry for myself. Father would be proud.

As soon as Luna is released she doesn't budge, instead she watches me while I gather wood for my sacrificial fire. Her ears perk forward, her slender Arabian neck arches high, and her intelligent eyes remain fixed on me. She paws the ground with her hooves and whinnies when I drop the wood on the altar. I collect some dry brush and place it in the wood.

"Bear witness if you will not leave me," I tell her.

My fist tightens around the knife. My other hand splays over the pile of wood and I imagine a fire igniting the bark. Perhaps my magi abilities will for once do as I will them.

Nothing happens.

I dig in my pocket for a flint stone.

Luna whinnies louder.

I use the knife to light the fire, the brush catches and the crackle of the flames eating the wood are almost comforting.

I climb atop the table, above the flames, intending to spill my blood into them.

"I give myself back to the ground," I say, raising the knife to my throat and close my eyes. "Look upon me mercifully and accept this offering, bring honor to my family."

How long will it hurt before I descend to the underworld to be judged?

"No! Please, please! Don't!" The same voice I heard earlier from Luna.

My eyes fly open and where Luna once stood, a young woman stands in her place. Her black hair is long, whipping away from her like a horse's mane, her skin is the color of coffee infused with milk, and her eyes are large and hazel. She is tall and long legged, her body graceful in form with soft swollen breasts.

She's so naked.

She's the first naked woman I've ever laid eyes upon.

Have I already slit my throat? Am I in the afterlife? Is this the goddess of death, Amara?

My eyes cannot leave her. She is not real. How can this beautiful young woman stand before me shamelessly without a stitch of clothing, a hand outstretched, dark eyebrows drawn together in pain for my death? Why is she here?

The flames leap up from the pyre. My magi powers at work.

Gods, not only is she bringing out my magic... I'm hard for her.

Is this a temptation sent by the gods? Is she here to test my resolve?

I raise the knife to inspect it. No blood. I'm still alive. I have to finish this.

"Don't do it, Mahmud!" The young woman cries again. Her hair blows from her forehead and face, she has peculiarly pointed ears, and I note a crescent moon mark on her forehead. Just like Luna's.

Could she be--?

"Mahmud, you can break me in, I promise!" The woman cries, her form completely altering as I stare at her. She takes the body of Luna.

"Luna?" I drop the knife into the pyre and step down from the table.

"Yes, I am known to you as Luna," my filly says aloud in my language. "My real name is Zahra."

"What are you?" I ask, blinking at her.

"I'm a horse-shifter," she says, and takes a step toward me. "I would not allow you to break me because I am not a real horse. It isn't your fault. Don't kill yourself."

"You still can't change what I am, what I was born to be," I say, sure I'm having one of my disturbing dreams again. "I'm a magi."

Luna--or--Zahra cocks her head. "I have heard of you. One who sees the dreams of others. A man who can manipulate the elements. You are like me. Born different than the rest. Alone in Kanan we will not survive. But maybe together... we can do something none before us have. I will be your horse. Faster than any other man's in Kanan. I will bring honor to your father's house and to you."

"What will I give you in return?" I ask.

"You will keep my secret and make sure no harm comes to me," Zahra says. "A man such as you. Where I come from, you are held in great esteem."

Where is she from and how can I get there?

"Just don't kill yourself, Mahmud," Zahra says. "You are a good man."