Common

my waves meet your shore, ever and evermore;

This is already going better - he doesn’t seem shocked that she’s rather forward (good - Fearne has never bene a shrinking wallflower) and doesn’t seem to find it suspicious. Much better to convince him that this child is his, if she starts off strong and can give a good reason before Fall is over. When he looks around for the Lagoon, she does as well, ears half-pinned. One of them showing up would certainly put a damper in her plans. She does not want to raise this child among such barbarians, and she would never sink so slow as to seduce one of them. “I don’t either,” she says, “Only that our first meeting was distasteful, and in my months wandering I have heard whispers - it doesn’t seem a place I want to end up.”

Their muzzles meet, and Fearne breathes out, a soft exchange of breath. Lucky for her, he is young and handsome - polite, too. She doesn’t know his name, but does that really matter? She doesn’t know the name of the stallion who fathered the foal growing inside her, either. Perhaps it won’t be such a burden to go with this stranger. She blinks at him in surprise when he asks why she is here, and cocks her head to the side in confusion. “This is where you go to find a home, right?”

Perhaps she had misunderstood the point of the Common. When she had washed up here it was the dead of winter and she was swarmed almost immediately. In the long months since, she has spent most of her time in the Meadow or the Falls, beholden to none and wandering at her own speed. But that’s no life for a child - no herd to protect them, no set place to call home, no father or aunts or friends. “When I washed up on these islands,” she explains, “I learned quickly that it doesn’t work like it did back home. And you come to this place to be claimed into a herd.” Maybe this stallion knows differently, maybe he isn’t here looking for someone to add to his herd. She shrugs one slim, elegant shoulder and glances away. “Why are you here? Are you not interested in taking me back to your home?” She can’t be wasting her time, if he has no intentions of welcoming her to his herd. Fall is short and she must find someone to take her in before the season closes.