The stallion did as she assumed he might. Mariael had been keeping a cushion of distance between them, but the air still stirred with malice as his hooves struck in front of her. It was too close for comfort. Mariael jerked her head upright to avoid taking a hoof to the face, and anger beat at her mind shortly thereafter. She wanted nothing more than to charge inward before he could gather energy to kick again where she could snap at any wrinkle of his skin.
Another kick from the irate dapple stallion set a further distance between them. Mariael stopped and stood, head held proudly high and sides gently heaving with exertion from their run. Her ice-blue eyes flashed as she regarded him. She knew she had been right to single him out to force to her home, looking at the determination in his expression.
Mariael rolled her eyes at his muttered insult and she had a few retorts sitting eager on her tongue. Though she was young (barely coming up to five years old this spring), she was not the absolute hothead she’d been when last she’d held the Bay. A word like that tossed in her direction would have earned sharp words in reply, and likely escalated into a physical altercation. Mariael would be gone to the necessity of taking this stallion back to the Bay and only focused on teaching him some vague lesson. But that had been before she had lost her father and before she had learned some hard truths in leading her home. So, as it stood now, Mariael was able to reflect her displeasure at the insult but did nothing further to goad him.
“No.” She said evenly, coolly. Mariael was the embodiment of her beloved Tinuvel, the ice queen draped in creams and whites with a frosty temperament to match. “I have claimed you for the Bay.” She spoke evenly, but with weight. The words would come as a surprise to him, no doubt, so Mariael carried on. “I am Mariael, Queen of the Bay, and you are now a member of my herd. If you’re done throwing a tantrum, we have a swim ahead of us and should be going.”
So maybe she wasn’t completely above slipping a dig in.
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