Rattlebone. Cut Up Angel. Fly. Mercury had been mistaken in thinking she could escape the spotlight by remaining silent. Her namelessness seemed to encourage the attention, in fact, and she tilted her ears back. Yes, she was interested, as CUA had pointed out. She just prefered to be interested from the outskirts.

Well, too late for that, and with a resigned sigh she hoped was too quiet for anyone to catch, the solid grey mare shifted forward into the circle. "Mercury," she said, lifting her head up a bit. The Bay belongs to you, she told herself. You were born here and this land is yours. Its inhabitants are yours as well. Her shyness began to melt away at that thought, and she drew herself up rather proudly, looking at her herdmates with curiousity in her gold eyes rather than apprehension. "I haven't lived here long with Soljor, but I've seen you all around a bit," she said. "Where do you come from?"

Her gaze travelled from mare to mare and she tried to read their faces. There was something slightly bitter about Cut Up Angel, but Mercury held her judgment; mares in these islands often had little reason not to be bitter. Fly seemed entirely comfortable in this group setting, and Mercury guessed she was the social type in the same way Mercury was the solitary type. Rattlebone was the most difficult to read; she seemed to simply to be interested in learning about the mares gathered around her.

Well, this couldn't be that bad, as long as the attention was more evenly distributed. It certainly wasn't as bad as trying to converse with the Lagoon mares. These mares all seemed far more honest than Fatale had been, so that at least was something. Mercury settled back into a more comfortable stance, her gaze never leaving her herdmates.

You love me, and I froze in time
Hungry for that flesh of mine
But I can't compete with the she-wolf
who has brought me to knees
What do you see in those yellow eyes?