Xina gave the stallion points as he reigned in his temper that had been so easy to see before. Though she was not scared of him in any manner, physically or mentally, she had not wanted it to be a battle between them any more than he had. If she had somehow gotten hurt then it would have affected Conquistador’s health as much as Sahin’s health would affect the herd’s safety. Nothing good would come of fighting amongst themselves, even if they were at a disagreement. But the flinty look in his eyes spoke of the discussion they may have later, of the opinion she may have created for herself but the roan woman could not find the effort to care.


“A mare does not just take a colt to the herd after it is born. She waits until he is strong enough and bonded enough to be able to handle others. Though I have clearly not birthed him it was all still the same.” Though she did not say it, Xina almost spoke it like a challenge. For Sahin to say she was not capable of taking care of a child by herself when she had done so with Mera before coming here. The buckskin girl had been young, but still a few seasons old when she had met the stallion on her own. Though she may have needed the eyes and teeth of other members to keep her rounded up within eye sight, she had been strong mentally and physically by that point in her life to take on the things she dared to face. Just as Rosha had been, her first child.


But the way Sahin and the other mare had acted towards each other, how they had both looked so softly towards Conquistador made a niggling thought creep into the mare’s mind like poison. Though she was grateful the blanketed stallion did not pin his ears in anger at the child, a colt that was not of his blood, Xina wondered if he would try to take the boy from her. It had never crossed her mind with Mera, not when the girl had been of her own blood. But Conquistador did not belong to any mare here, she had simply been chosen by a stallion that had no say so in this land. Such a thought caused a whole new wave of anger mixed with a feel of panic. Xina could not lose this boy any more than she could Mera when he was the closest thing she had to Debonaire ever again.


Feeling threatened the mare’s muscles tensed beneath her skin, coiling like a snake fixing to strike. The urge to peel back her onyx lips and part her jaws in a warning bite, to drive away the opponent and make herself and Conquistador safe once more was almost too much. Xina would do it at any cost to keep the pale boy at her side but rationality kept her in place despite how her mind raced with actions her body thought she should take. She could not make accusations like Sahin did to her when she did not know if the stallion and mare would try and steal away the child.


Deciding it best to try and calm herself, Xina looks away from them and down to Conquistador. Lowering her head down to him she reaches out her muzzle to run her soft lips against his back in a loving manner. Getting herself kicked out would not be to their best interest and if Sahin really was that interested in him, maybe he would prove another wall in the way of Rade’s ambition for the boy.

Maybe... just maybe... Sahin would help protect Conquistador from the Devil’s hands.