He watched her giggle and look him over as though she were a wolf eyeing a piece of meat. It was not his ego that was bruised; rather, he wished to be treated with the respect he gave to others. In the past he wouldn’t have let it bother him to be treated a little rudely, but his current outlook was not as cheerful as it had once been and her scraping teeth had eroded him further. He rolled his eyes as she addressed where they were. Of course, the Commons. How could he have forgotten? When he’d been here before, though, it was only stallions taking mares home against their will. Interesting how the times change.
Irritated though he was by her actions and words, he could not pretend that the scent swept up to him along with her tail was not enticing. Almost against his will, his lip curled to lock in the aroma. He was, after all, still an animal and instincts had a grip on him as much as any other stallion. She continued talking, and he shook his head to compose himself. ”Well, Xiomara, I quite frankly don’t care who your parents were. And if you’d asked nicely I’d probably have come with you anyway. You should work on some manners, telling others they have no freedom isn’t really a good way to get them to stick around.”
Then, she did the most bizarre thing she’d done the whole time, and began to snake her head toward him. He squealed and kicked a hind leg in her direction. It wasn’t intended to make contact, merely to express his disapproval. Then, he took off in a northerly direction, heading toward the cold island of Tinuvel. He didn’t mind the snow, but if all the company was as cold as the air and Xiomara had been, he was about to be in for a long winter.