Common

At first, Solomon had not been sure that his flattery would work on the young mare. She seemed to be on the edge of running from them still, even after they had both declared themselves harmless. Or, well, mostly harmless. And yet the gentle praise he offers forces the young mare's breath to hitch, and he can see a glitter of something new and nameless in her brilliant green eyes. It's clear to him that he's struck a chord somewhere within the pretty tobiano mare, but he did not yet know how loud or for how long the resulting chime would last.

Chelle, she says and he cannot stop the soft frown that immediately replaces the smile on his lips. The name seems strangely familiar, and yet not at the same time. As though it had been something important to him at some time. But that couldn't be right. He had known a Shelly, he thought. She had been the last sibling out of his mother before he'd left on Judas' bidding to the far island known as Kormada, and barely a few months old when he'd left. It had been a bid to expand his grandsire's land control, and a large responsibility for Solomon at the time. A privilege for him to do so even.

But the Shelly he'd known had been almost palomino in coloration as a child (at least as far as he remembered), and certainly wouldn't have had any reason to be here now. Herod was often a disappointment to his father Judas for the many ways in which he failed to live up to expectations, but even Herod had been judicious and prompt in assigning his daughters to allies. As much as Judas' reign had been accomplished by brute force and overwhelming numbers, it had been supported by frequent and plentiful rewards in the form of gifted daughters and in the exchange of breeding rights.

His sister would have been traded off to an ally the moment she came of child-bearing age, if not sooner. The last place she would be was here, leagues away and unaccompanied by any sort of chaperone. But it could explain why she had struck such a chord of familiarity. Solomon hadn't had a chance to get to know his sister well, and apart from the freckles on her face, he had little to remember of her appearance. The fact that Chelle was demure and wore similar markings could be more than enough to explain why the niggling feeling of familiarity jostled at the back of his mind. A relieved sigh escaped him as she responded to his teasing.

Seemingly emboldened by the compliment, she offers a slight challenge to his flattery and he chuckles softly, a wolfish smile curling along his lips. So she did have some fire in there after all. Solomon remains quiet while she turns her pretty gaze onto Cain. He couldn't say that it was necessarily pleasant to hear her turning her charm towards him, but it did give him room to continue studying her.

Like himself, she was lean and elegant, but where his body was trimmed of fat and littered with scars, her pretty coat was largely unblemished by brutality and padded by feminine curves. Even if he hadn't been partial to the gorgeous smattering of white over her body, he would have found himself drawn in by the sweetness of her personality. Beside him, Cain surprised him with a sideways compliment that broke Solomon's attention from Chelle for the briefest of moments. Solomon couldn't tell if he was attempting to be neutral for the sake of impressing Chelle, or if he genuinely was this benevolent, but he put it to the side for now. Perhaps it was only his thoughts of his past that were making this interaction seem violently nice, and not really something so far out of the norm.

Cain moved off on a long-winded explanation of his motives and purposes, to which Solomon listened with half an ear. They were pretty words, and Solomon could, unfortunately, find no fault in them. Unlike other stallions, Cain didn't seem to be trying to twist the interaction to his advantage as Solomon might have done. There was no subtle posturing or careful wording. No talking up his home by subtly downplaying his opponent's. Hell, there wasn't even a jab about how Solomon had once forced Mazarine from the Desert to the Cove against her will.

It was just, pleasant, incessant goodness and Solomon felt a strange pang of regret for taking Mazarine from him. It didn't last, of course. As far as he knew, the enigmatic red pony mare had been given her freedom by Valka, and had still chosen to live on in the Bay rather than return to the Desert... or to him, but that was a separate matter entirely.

Even when Cain spoke of the dangers of the Commons, he did so in a way that didn't even remotely suggest the tobiano would do such a thing. And perhaps he wouldn't. Solomon didn't know him that well, after all. But Solomon knew far too well the rush that came with force claiming a mare, even if also usually came with more than its fair share of trouble. Had Solomon been in a different mood, or alone, or even influenced by the rush of the impending fall season, he might have behaved differently.

As it were, he was currently content to be a civilized gentleman. Mostly.

Cain finishes with his speech, and then turns to Solomon, clearly waiting for something more to be said. In truth, Solomon wasn't sure what else there was to add. Cain had well and truly described what the land was for, his motives, and what his personal intentions were. Considering the question had not been directed toward the taller tobiano, he wasn't particularly sure what there was left to add.

However, Solomon wasn't about to let a chance to woo her slide, especially when Cain was doing such a good job of portraying himself as a perfect gentleman.

"What he said." Chuckling softly, Solomon tipped his head toward the Vanner stallion as he spoke, and ended with a cheeky grin. "Except I imagine that I'm neither as selfless, nor as pure-hearted as he would appear." Inclining his head back toward Chelle, he continued to elaborate again, his hip cocking as he relaxed into the conversation. "I merely saw a pretty face that looked familiar. But now," he said as his gaze rose to try to meet her own again. "Now I'm kind of hoping you decide to come home with me instead of him."

The easy grin that remains on his lips softens the edge of competition in his tone, but there is no doubt now that the conversation has moved on from just being two good samaritans gathering to help a pretty girl out. Cain may have opted for the high and honorable road, but Solomon was not that kind of man. He would accept if Chelle chose Cain, but that didn't mean he was going to roll over onto his back and pretend he liked it.

Solomon