Rehoboam had expected retaliation from the black stallion, and rose to meet it with his dark ears pinned and lips pressed into a tight grimace. In truth, he didn't
want to be here anymore than the black stallion wanted him to be here, but he had a job to do.
Fell's teeth scraped across Rehoboam's coat without finding purchase as the shorter tobiano was already whirling to the side to avoid what he assumed would become a full-on bloodbath. As it was only summer, Reh hadn't counted on the black stallion being so absurdly possessive of a mare he'd only just met, but there wasn't anything he could do about it now. Reh lashed out with a foreleg, attempting to strike at one of the black stallion's hindlegs.
Suddenly there was space between them, and Reh turned to eye them both suspiciously when he realized that they had been joined by someone else. The General's son was a familiar sight around the Lagoon, but Rehoboam had spent little time getting to know him. As much as the tobiano stallion was used to having children around, the older he got the more uncomfortable he became when their eyes landed on him. He was no example for anyone to look up to, let alone a young bachelor-in-the-making.
Still, he'd be lying if he claimed he wasn't glad for the backup... even if it did mean his protection priorities had altered to accommodate the yearling.
Not to be outdone, the mare was circling around them as if
she were the predator here, and not the three males that all outsized her. That by itself wouldn't have been so bad but she began to try and mock them, incorrectly assuming that Rehoboam's appearance in her life had anything at all to do with her. He laughed and settled his weight as it became clear that the black stallion's ire was also shifting.
"Sweetheart, you've got the wrong idea about why I'm here." Reh said, his voice uncharacteristically hard. It had been years since he'd imagined himself a savior of any mare. What he could imagine, however, was one of his baby sisters ending up in this forsaken section of the Crossing and getting manhandled by a giant toddler who hadn't learned how not to bite his friends yet.
"But he needs to learn some manners before he turns that mouth on someone who doesn't deserve it... you notwithstanding of course."
Shame lurked behind his bravado in the recesses of his mind but he shoved it down for later. What did it matter if his mother would be ashamed of him if there was no way she would ever know this had happened?
Predictably, the lanky black stallion exploded as he was chastised, proving Reh's assumptions about his mental capacity more or less correct. The tobiano rolled his eyes but did not try to intervene again. He'd provided the mouthy little mare a chance to escape and she'd used it to try and needle her opponents. If she wanted to be stupid, he couldn't stop her.
Plus, he would be lying if he claimed he didn't want to see her get just a
little bit of a comeuppance.
He half turned his head to try and still Vadim if he was attempting to intervene, and spoke to him loudly enough for all of them to hear.
"Oh no, let her fight her own battles since she seems to think she can. Let's see just how far it takes her."
And then Reh settled back to watch the show, moving alongside with them if they dashed ahead, but not immediately intervening in whatever scuffle they were involved in. He still hadn't decided if he was going to try and stop them from reaching the water, but he was also kind of still hoping that the spicy little mare would be forced to ask for the rescue she had mocked only moments ago.