(ooc: mild cw for dubious consent mentioned towards the end)

The figure advances closer and closer through the trees, and Svenja is forced to decide if she is going to fight or flee. Fleeing would mean hoping that Kvasir wakes up in time and is quick enough to realize what's happening. Otherwise she risks leaving him behind to the devices of this stranger, and that's simply not an option. But is fighting an option, either? She doubles down in her stance, hooves digging resolutely into the dirt. "Go away!" she shouts into the night, but her warning doesn't deter the shadow, a mangled growl the only response she gets.

It does wake Kvasir, though, the colt lifting his head and cracking his eyes open. He looks first up at his mother, confusion etched into his face. But the stallion breaks from the woods, and awash in moonlight the pair can see the ire clear as daylight on his face. He pauses only briefly to observe the pair and then lowers his head, driving forward in a rush of movement. An alarmed squeal is torn from Kvasir as the intruder gets closer, forcing the colt to scramble gracelessly to his hooves. He jolts his body back, trying to put distance between himself and the stranger, seeking shelter behind the protective wall of his mother's body.

"Wait-" Svenja tries to say, but her words are lost to the stallion as he single-mindedly tries to drive them out of the clearing. Seeing no other way out and not wanting to put her or her son's life in further danger, Svenja allows them to be herded down the mountainside. She makes a point of keeping herself firmly between the stallion and her son, like her small frame might be enough to shield him from the ill intentions of the Bay's new king.

When they've left the forest behind, the sabino mare digs her hooves in, refusing to go any further. Svenja turns and snaps her teeth at the ebon stranger, if only to get him to stop pushing her onward. She doesn't care if she manages to bite him or not; either way she hopes he'll take it as the warning it is.

"Stop! I know where I'm going, you don't need to herd me like some child." Speaking of children, she spares a glance back at Kvasir. He stands next to her with his shoulder pressed firmly against her hindquarter, head lowered like the stallion might forget about him if he simply can't be seen. Svenja half-turns to him and offers a comforting brush of her muzzle against the ridge of his nose. "It's okay, he's not going to hurt you."

He can try, but he'd have to kill me first. The thought echoes in the back of her mind. She honestly doubts he'd kill her, though. She might be young but she's not stupid. She knows what the season is, and she knows she can use it to her advantage if she has to. It's a bargaining chip she doesn't want to have to use, but if it means a promise that no harm will come to Kvasir, it's one she'll gladly play. But there's still that inkling of fear that makes he wonder, what if that doesn't stop him?

She has to resist the urge to recoil into a more submissive stance as she turns her attention fully back to the imposing black beast who'd forced them from their safe haven. "I won't let you hurt him," her earlier statement is repeated directly. She has to force her voice not to quiver, all the whole trying to believe she'd have the strength to fight him off. "He's just a child, he can't do anything to you. Let him stay, just for a few weeks longer, and I'll... I'll..." The roan mare falters, words caught in her throat. She doesn't want to join his herd. She doesn't want to give him any part of herself. But she will, if it means keeping Kvasir safe. If it gives him a chance to get out of here alive and unharmed.

Her voice drops to a murmur, but the words sound like thunder in her ears as they are released into the still night air. "I won't run."