Down her sleek neck reached to rub her nose against her knee, hiding the smile that grew at the sound of that relenting snort at her reasoning. Life had not been easy for the buckskin, but she had survived. Day by day she had met the perils that confronted her, or where possible sidestepped them. She was not so foolish as to take on unnecessary battles after all. But this battle she undertook here was one entirely new to her. With every moment longer she spent with the stallion her walls fell away and resolve faltered. Increasingly he became harder to refuse. Why could it not have been another who looked upon her and simply saw her cloudy staring eyes? But that wish was not even as strong as it once was. His company had awoken in her hopes she had so carefully pushed down long ago. For his sake and his herds she needed to turn away. But instead her heart lifted at the sound of his laughter.

Stubborn, yes he was stubborn. And though she ought to have chided him for his choice on where to direct that stubbornness that day she found herself secretly delighting in the fact he did. Ears peeked, flickering slightly to the winds as though they might carry her whispers of council. But they only carried the crisp touch of fall, and the promise of colder weather approaching hidden just beyond the horizon. Too quickly, far too quickly the winter months were nearing, what was she to do? She needed to think. And it was so hard to do so easily with his scent filling her senses, with his offer dancing temptingly just before her nose.

Pagans answer was stolen away with a soft snort, committing it to memory with a resolve to note carefully the progress of the season about her. Eyes were not necessarily needed for that at least. The heaviness that crept over her heart at the sound of regret through his tones was dashed away at the touch that found her again, darker nose reaching out to locate him with her own soft sigh. To soon it was time for parting however. And far more effort that she had thought it possible it took to keep from calling after the vanishing presence. His pale form disappearing from her view long before her truly passed from sight. It was with a muddled heart the tawny mare finally turned about, following the scents upon the winds back across the Peaks safe boundaries. But through the mare remained, her thoughts were moving further and further away with the stallion into the distance.