Escape

Selora


Why were there no butterflies in the desert?


Little Selora wondered this on a daily basis. She had seen perhaps one or two in her entire lifetime, which was a whopping 14 years running. Wasn't that unusual? Tirzah always had plenty of flowers growing around the perimeter of the adobe house, of all different colors and smells… Selora could not stand those flowers. They smelled wonderful, sure, but they made her sneeze and sneeze and sneeze. She hated sneezing. The summer before, the same summer her liar parents told her she was adopted finally (as if she didn't already know ugh), so many flowers had managed to bloom that she felt as though she couldn't escape it. That whole summer was absolutely misery. Every last bit of it.


And speaking of misery, she had gotten a slight sunburn since she had chosen to deliberately disobey her adoptive mother’s direction to put on sun cream. What was she, a child? She didn't need Tirzah telling her what to do all the time. Dad - that is, Abram, always told her to mind her mother. But why? What had she done to ever deserve her respect? Ya know, besides adopt her and raise her and feed her…


Whatever. Either way, Selora was dead set on causing trouble that day. She had found herself wandering around the outside of the house, kicking up dust and annoying her older brother as usual. Tirzah had told her not to stray too far today. “I can't chase you around today, little Willow. Momma has a long to do list that must be finished by dusk.” And off the ginger mare had gone, off to the market or something of the sort… Her family nickname being spoken aloud made her cringe. Didn't they know she hated that name with every ounce of hatred within her? Ugh, what a childish name. Willow. Who had a name like Willow?


Certainly not her. In all her wandering thoughts and amusement with kicking dirt at her brother Kris’s ridiculously pompous pride, Selora had hatched a rather devious plan. She would leave the house with the permission of Abram, since he never really paid attention when he was planting in his garden and would just agree anyway, and she would go off on her own. No adults, no grumpy brothers. Just her and… maybe she'd drag Salvatore along. That colt always loved to cause a little ruckus with her. And her diehard crush on the kid made it all the more satisfying for him to follow her around on her crazy adventure.


Entering the house, not bothering to scrape her hooves on her mother’s stupid dirt rug, she scurried to the back garden, where she knew Abram would be, tending to their personal patch. “Daaaaaad!!” She hollered, her little curls bobbing up and down as she trotted to the picket fence surrounding the medium sized patch. The graying dapple stallion grunted in response, so she kept talking. “Dad, Salvatore is going out to play with Benji and Io… can I go? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaseeee?” Selora begged, hooking her front legs in between the fence posts and slouching against them to add a rather dramatic flare to her request. Abram replied with a simple, “Mhmmm, stick to the paths and be home before dusk.” He was hardly paying attention to the filly as she bolted off to find Salvatore. Of course, Benji and Io weren't actually going with them. But that was a tiny lie that could be overlooked right? Her mistake. Oops.


Seeing the red colt sparring with a couple other foals about their age, Selora slowed down and trotted over, short curly tail flagged to present her Arabian bloodline. “Salvatore! Oh, Salvatore!” She called for him, somewhat singing his name. He wouldn't be able to pass up what she had planned today.