She’s a bold, curious thing, extending her muzzle right into his space and inspecting him. Rafe makes an amused little noise but he tolerates it. She snorts when she catches a whiff, and he wonders if she’s against Salem. While he has come to love his barren desert home, it certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. Perhaps a mare like this, fresh to the Commons, dreams of the easy life on Luthien or Atlantis. Her teasing question makes him snort out a laugh, and he looks her over. The ease in her stance, even here, speaks of confidence in her own abilities to protect herself. So Rafe shakes his head, opens his mouth to speak but before he can deny such intentions a mare he doesn’t recognize approaches.
She’s golden, slim and built more for the dry heat of his home than this snowy, miserable island. Worst of all, she reeks of the Peak, and immediately his ears pin back in irritation. Was it not enough that his own mare drove their leader off? Was it not enough that the only mare who wanted freedom is now living happily in the Prairie with the irritating Zevulun? But there’s no use denying it, no use showing that he’s threatened by her approach because he isn’t. It is a mild setback, at most, and if this mare he approached has any sense in her head at all she will still go with him. “Am I so predictable?” He drawls, sardonic. “You aren’t wrong - but don’t fret, sweetheart, there’s room in the Badlands for you as well.” He winks at the Peak mare and adds, “It would be a welcome change for you, I should think. Or are you as frigid as your sisters, and afraid you’ll melt?”
The golden Peak mare has kicked the conversation with this strange mare into an awkward place now, and Rafe won’t ignore the pretty red mare just for her. So he looks away, pointedly dismissing the intruder. “Well, she stole my line. So I suppose I will have to offer to protect you – from the torture that is conversation with a sanctimonious Vulcan.” He smirks at the little red mare, adding, “Don’t mind her - they’re all bitter that I don’t live my life according to their standards, and that my mares think for themselves.”