As Mouse joined the group of mares, she felt exceptionally small. Glancing at the faces towering over her, she was even more intimidated. Though the draft mare claimed to be friendly, she looked anything but to Mouse, who was beginning to feel overly stimulated with the words and ideas being tossed about. To her, the peak was a refuge. She had known it as nothing else. It protected her with its jagged cliffs and to her the idea of making a name for her home felt like opening it up to predators and removing the safety that it currently offered her. She could not imagine herself defending it in any way, not in her present state. There was not a doubt in her mind that the others would be very capable of holding their own, but who in their right mind would ever think that the short stocky girl posed a threat?
While she pondered, she closely observed those around her. The gathering was uncomfortable, tangibly so, and could quickly turn messy. If horses could bristle, Mouse imagined Anath would currently be puffing her hair out to the best of her ability. The grullo girl had not lost her attention to body language. The general’s current skepticism did not escape her. In fact, as she watched, she detected a slight change in the paler dun. Mouse’s hooves shuffled backwards a bit when the green stare fell upon her. The last thing she wanted was further injury.
Suddenly everything went wrong. What could have been a reasonably peaceful meeting turned into a disaster in Mouse’s eyes. This is what she had wanted to avoid, without knowing exactly why. As the general verbally lashed out, Mouse scrambled back toward the tree line, her hooves clattering loudly on the rocky surface. Her ears fell slightly back and the whites of her eyes appeared as they widened in fear. Her rump collided with a trunk and she let out a slight grunt of surprise, surprise that in her current agitation she could still feel the scrape of the rough bark against her skin.
In her new position of relative safety she watched the remainder of the small tiff through a slight fog in her vision. She sucked in air with sharp, short breaths, her sides heaving with the effort. It had been some time since she had felt so distressed. Closing her eyes, vague memories of a similar situation floated before her. The shadows danced, but no matter how she tried she could not discern the features of the equines she saw. The brief sort-of flashback ended with a painful twinge in her shoulder wound. With a gasp she opened her eyes and the pale one had left in anger.
It was only then that she noticed the newcomer, a mare. Though her coloring was similar to Mouse’s, the girl was painted and slightly taller. Would there ever be another living here who was as short as she was? She shook her head to remove it of such trivial thoughts. The only thing she was now capable of was glancing in shock at Impa to gauge her reaction to Anath’s outburst. What would they do now that their leader had, for the time being, rejected the newcomers?