The fact that Drogon was gone should have infuriated her more than it did. To have had her son back for all of a few weeks before he was taken away again by the Bay Bitch should leave her furious, but if she were honest with herself? It was almost a relief. Drogon was perhaps the only creature on the entire planet to have any chance of knowing just how much she had orchestrated the Peak chaos. The only one who would know how close she came to hiding beyond Rougaru's grasp in the hands of another stallion's land. And, most alarmingly, the only one who knew that she did have a heart - no matter how shrunken and cold.

In his absence, the herd had swung into life and Vanya was not oblivious to the power moves that Monster was now making. For ages, the speckled mare had been a silent watcher in Paradise, but now that she was not the only Queen on the docket, she seemed fired up to make changes. Slinking off to their old allies and barking about the structure of the herd. The fact that the second spot was brought up the instant her son was out of the picture did not slip past Vanya's notice either, but it was a subtle enough snub that she could not call out her co-drappa for it… for now.

In truth, she was more preoccupied with this pregnancy. Her body was - unfortunately - far more used to carrying a child than it had been in the past, and this little parasite had grown faster than she could believe. Already the shapely definition from her belly to her hips had been lost, softly rounded by the fetus she carried. With the rounding came nausea as well, which left her too fatigued to eat, or ravenous when it did leave her on rare occasions.

She hated it.

Even so, with the crown now firmly on her head, she didn't necessarily regret the child. Her body had already been ravaged by the births of her two eldest children and it had not stopped men - Rougaru included - from staring. Some, she supposed, even preferred to see the marks of previous pregnancies, although she found this idea distasteful.

The Paridisian Queen paced the borders of her home absently in the early pre-dawn light. She often found herself restless in the jungle as of late, especially in the quiet hours of the morning when the child she carried was most active. It was a coincidence that she also needed to at least appear useful while Monster was out running her mouth and making enemies. Walking the borders wasn't much, but it was something. If she allowed the herd to think that she was slacking, then it would be grounds for one of them to challenge her. And while getting Rougaru to crown her had been the most difficult part of this affair, Vanya was entirely certain he would not prohibit someone from challenging her for her well-deserved crown. They did so love to spite each other, after all.

A scent caught her attention as she wandered and she froze, her lithe figure poised on the path as she tried to sort out why the unknown mare's scent was familiar. So many women had come and gone through Paradise in the space of Vanya's time here that there were plenty of faces to sort through. And for most of them, Vanya spared only a passing glance. Her lover had a tendency to collect pretty things and leave them sprinkled about his home without assigning them any lasting value. Learning all of their names was a lesson in futility that Vanya had little reason to pursue. As long as they all respected her authority, she could not care less what name Rougaru whispered in their ears as he had his way with them.

In the end, he would return to her... and that was all that really mattered.

She places the mare's scent just as she comes close enough for them to look upon each other, and for once, Vanya makes no attempt to mask the surprise that slips over her face. She well remembered - albeit with extreme jealousy and irritation - just how much the Wolf King had adored the little Luthien spitfire he'd collected so many years ago. Just as she remembered how that mare had sweetly sacrificed herself for Vanya and her son when the Peak had come to 'rescue' them. And how, in the end, it had all been a ploy anyway.

Although Vanya had - genuinely - wanted out of Paradise at the time, further introspection had revealed that it had very little to do with wanting an escape, and far more to do with wanting the Wolf King's attention. The Peak itself had no allure for Vanya. It was a barren, frigid hellscape filled with far more mares than sense and Vanya had hated every second of her time there. However, no matter how miserable her time away had been, it had proven extremely useful in the end. Titania, however, had not been in Paradise when Vanya had returned. She wasn't sure if the mare had escaped or if she'd been stolen away by one of the Wolf King's many enemies, but she certainly hadn't been here when Vanya returned. Nor had she seen the sort of triumph on Rougaru's face that would herald her recapture. All of this begged the question of why the speckled mare was here now.

What happened? Are you okay? The speckled mare's questions come rapid-fire and Vanya finds her advantage in the silence, opting to purse her lips together and furrow her brow as if there was too much to say. However, it's not until the mare inquires after her children that Vanya ducks her gaze away from the mare as if the truth was far too hard to discuss. In a way, it was. How was she going to explain to this selfless little mare that all of it - the child she had carried then, the escape itself - had been a ploy. That her ultimate destiny was to return here after all and take up her proper place as the Paradisian Queen. As she turns her head away to collect her thoughts, she half-closes her eyes to gather tears on the lower lashes. She doesn't yet know why she would need them, but tears have a power all their own… and the longer Titania talked, the more Vanya realized that the monochrome mare was, somehow, still in trouble.

Come with me, she begs, and the slender ballerina lifts her gaze back to the mare she might have one day called her friend. A lesser mare might have wallowed in the sentimentality of such a thought, but it sparked an idea in the roan mare. If Titania did not know of her status, then there was nothing to prevent Vanya from playing on the woman's sympathies. And if she somehow managed to get the pretty little speckled mare deep enough into Paradise and could deliver her to Rougaru? Well, he might be a little more incentivized to keep the baying wolves at bay should one of them be bold enough to try their luck.

Decision made, it is easy for Vanya's brow to cloud with falsified worry and for her lips to twist into an uncertain frown. "I can't," she insists with a wince, flicking her gaze back along the trail she'd just traveled with a longing that was not entirely manufactured. Somewhere back there, her Wolf King still slumbered in their clearing where she'd left him, and she would still prefer to be curled at his side. If the child she carried - nebulous and small though it was - hadn't set off her nausea this morning, she would probably still be wrapped in his capable embrace.

If we're fast, we can be gone before he even notices, Titania murmurs and Vanya pulls her frown deeper in response, her ribs heaving in a panicked little breath. Again, she twists her neck to glance down in the direction that she had come from, trying to craft a false narrative that her child was somewhere further in.

"Titania, I can't," she hisses again, her melodic voice high as if she were worried. "Not without her," she insists, glancing again behind her. Of course, Vanya was thinking of Rougaru rather than any child of her own, but she knew that Titania would not know the difference… not yet. They did not know each other well enough for Titania to understand that the likelihood of Vanya having had a child last year while she was free had been infinitesimally small. However, should Titania press further, Vanya knew that she could supply Vivienne's details and make the entire story plausible.

Pitching her voice lower, she tips her fluted ears back and widens her gaze as if to plead with the other mare. "I can't leave without her," she almost whispers, accentuating her words with a timid step back. Then, wanting to draw Titania in without giving away the obvious, she took another half step back and half turned, as if to race back, only to pause and turn her limpid doe-eyes up at the monochrome mare.

"Please," she pleads in a whisper. Just come with me, she thinks. If she could just get Titania to come with her down the trail, she could deliver her to Rougaru and cement her position with him. Surely he would not doubt her loyalty if she were to hand-deliver the very woman that she had once nearly escaped with. "She's not far," she lies, turning just a bit further down the path but hesitating, as if afraid to go alone. Vanya knows that if she plays her hand too heavily that the monochrome mare will see the farce for what it was. On the other hand, if she is not obvious enough about what she wants, Titania will opt to stay here instead. And while Vanya could bring Rougaru to her, they were far too close to Paradise's border for the new Queen to be certain of Titania's capture.

She lifts her forehoof again and pauses to look back at Titania, her body tense with excitement masquerading as fear. Her ears flick anxiously back and forth before she offers one last plea, her voice barely above a whisper. "Please."