He had waited until the end of winter to rush to Paradise, although the waiting was it's own kind of torture. It wasn't because Solomon wanted to spend more time away from Feray and Ayzirek. In truth, waiting to challenge for them had taken every shred and fiber of his patience and he was dangerously close to having none left.

But he couldn't afford to fail.

Having lost to Rougaru at every turn, the tobiano knew that he needed a different strategy. Running head-on at the problem was solving nothing, and it was painfully clear that Rougaru had more experience with fighting than Solomon had ever counted on. If he was going to win and rescue his beloved Feray and little Ayzirek, he needed to get creative, and while what he had in mind was not necessarily the most groundbreaking idea he'd ever had... it was uncharacteristic of him. And if he was lucky, just uncharacteristic enough to give him the edge he needed.

The heat slapped him on the face the moment that he reached the beach and he swallowed down the discomfort, resolving to simply fight through it. He'd known it was coming, but it didn't make adjusting to the heat of the tropics any easier after weathering the harsh cold of a Tinuvel winter. He knew it would give Rougaru an advantage that he most certainly didn't need, but he hoped that the unexpectedness of his arrival would help to offset that.

The tobiano moved quickly ashore, his gaze already raking across the treeline for any visible targets. As much as he wanted to face Rougaru in an honorable fashion, he was at the point of taking anything he could get, even if that meant raiding someone to bargain with. Anything to get Feray home.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for his moral compass, depending on how you looked at it), there were no easy targets within eyesight and so the tobiano resolved to do what he had come to do in the first place, and lifted his mottled muzzle with a bugling call for the leader of the land. It was time to earn Feray's freedom back.

Solomon