Beneath the scant moonlight brave enough to force its way through the dense greenery to illuminate their moment, Vanya stands watchful. Despite how bare-faced she had been in the presence of the mare and stallion, her intentions had not been outed to the silver bay stallion of Paradise, which deserved a modicum of her respect. As those brought and kept here by force, it was easy enough to imagine that sharing intel on the other would have raised their graces in Rougaru's eyes, and yet both had remained quiet. Vanya to plot and scheme quietly in the dark as her body grew round and uncomfortable with the result of her joining with the silver stallion, and Titania to wait for her prince charming.

The black mare's comment about the men's egos earns a soft, breathy chuckle from the roan. It was very true. Rougaru's ego was large enough that all it took was a few tugs to lead him to certain destinations, but the wishes that Vanya most needed fulfilled remained stubbornly out of reach. She knew all the moves it would take to encourage the brute atop her back, season or no. Knew in her bones the dance that she must do to raise his ire, or the words she must offer to cut his pride to the quick. But no amount of song or dance was enough to earn what she truly wanted.

His heart was not hers to have, and she resented him for it.

Quiet steals over the overo once more as Titania continues, and while the pride in her chest wants her to lash out at the mare's assertion that she has rescue coming, she quells it. It is not Titania's fault that Vanya has no one to look to for rescue. That she has not managed to woo some eligible bachelor into taking her far from this place.

Vanya is careful to keep her expression guarded as the spotted mare draws close, still wary of the repercussions of such a meeting. But there is no denying the depth of feeling in her eyes, or the meaning beneath the words that she offers. It would be easy to be lost in the chaos, she thinks, but would that be too late? Would her own child already wander around on stilt-like legs ill-suited to a long swim? Would Rougaru already have met them, and known their face enough to pursue them later in life?

She wanted him to burn with the same self-righteous hatred that consumed her every single time she thought of him trying to separate mother from child. To be consumed with the what-ifs and the whys. If she could not occupy his heart in the way that she wanted, she vowed to forever occupy his mind.

A movement through the jungle forced her head to turn as a stranger emerged from depths, and Vanya's posture immediately stiffened. The mare carried with her the scent of a foreign land, and moved with the same determined purpose that Vanya had seen on a mare only once before. It had been nearly a year since Kyuubi had attempted to steal her away, but so much had changed that rather than flinging hooves at the marauding mare, Vanya only stared.

She did not want the Peak, if she were honest. The prospect of spending her days surrounded by a suffocating mat of man-hating women spelled a certain sort of doom to her, but she was also aware that she would not get another chance like this. No one else would be coming for her. If she wanted to get herself and her coming child away from Rougaru, this was it. This moment would decide her future.

Her gaze flicked to Titania, and twisted with indecision. Selfishly she needed to take handout, for she had no handsome stallion to come back for her. No one was coming to save her like Rille was for Titania.

"I will," she murmured in response. Her gaze pleaded with the spotted mare for a long moment for forgiveness, and she stretched her pale muzzle forward. It felt as though someone else was inhabiting her body to offer such kindness, and she retracted quickly so that she could return to where Drogon lay sleeping. Hurriedly she roused the small colt with a kiss to his forehead. "Come, Drogon, we're going on an adventure."

She whispered the words against his neck with the flutter of nerves making her whole body tremble. Quickly the pair moved back to the two mares, with Drogon sleepily rubbing his eyes.