Common

━━ ❧ ━━


Start walking - Pippin could manage that. He could fall into step with the herd like an absolute pro, and you'd never hear him complain about the dust if he ended up near the back of the pack (which invariably he did). It was probably a stroke of genius on Frey's part to get the big guy moving, too, whether he realized it or not. Occupied as he was with following the colt's lead, he didn't quite have an opportunity to panic so completely when Frey said this is the island.

The bay did lag behind a step or three, nearly tripping over his own feathered feet. "Oh, heavens."

Something else came after the word 'island', but in all honesty everything that followed sounded more like the buzzing of a swarm of biting flies to his ears. Pippin had never known anyone who'd been to the islands in the distance, or at least anyone who had been there and returned, and he wasn't a particularly strong swimmer in the first place.

The others probably weren't going to be meeting him at the rendezvous tomorrow. They had no intention of waiting anyway, but he didn't know that.

Pippin wasn't quite ready to give up on getting home. Honestly, it was difficult to imagine the life he knew simply ending without so much as a by-your-leave, to imagine waking up tomorrow or the next day or the next in the same unfamiliar place. His family would think him eaten by predators when he never returned, and nobody would waste precious time or resources looking for him. Such was their way.

He kept his wits about him by counting his hoofbeats in the pre-dawn darkness, casting furtive glances Frey's way as though he'd take a sharp turn and try to lose him too if given the opportunity. Knowing he was marooned on an island left him feeling even more vulnerable than before.

"D'you think...do you think anyone at the Lagoon will be mad if I hang out a while?" The bay stallion didn't mention that he wasn't sure he could make the swim back. He also didn't mention he had no hope of repaying any kindness they deigned to show him, as - at least by the standards of his herd - he possessed no marketable skills whatsoever beyond his impeccable ability to march without complaint.