If his decision to not touch her had been hard, seeing him shake his head in a nevermind gesture was worse. As if he was giving up on trying to communicate with her, seeing the whole process as too problematic or not worth his time, or worse, that she had been too curt with her initial response and made him change his mind. A frown formed quickly on her lips and she shook her head apologetically - leaning as if to step toward him just as he shifted to stand beside her.

"No," she said to what she had taken as his nevermind, "I'm sorry." While she was frustrated and uncomfortable with the current dynamics, she was far more afraid of losing Fell than she was worried about shaping the Bay to be led the same way the Cove was. Worse still was the realization that she had reached in the intervening months between her arrival and now, was that there was a lot she was willing to tolerate in regards to the treatment of his other mares than she would accept for herself. More apologies rose to her lips, but stayed caged behind the frown she wore as he moved to press his head against her.

Kohelet had come to learn that nearly every action her handsome black stallion took was a piece of communication, even if she was not always capable of understanding him right away. She hated herself for making him feel as though he had to give up on trying to speak with her, especially when her reticence was based (in large part) on her own failures. As he pressed against her, she sighed softly and reached for him as well, selfishly allowing his presence and the pull she felt for him to overshadow her doubts.

"I'm sorry," she murmured again more softly, and then drew in a quiet breath against his skin. The moment reminded her poignantly of the first day they'd spent together, and the way that he had carefully scratched his name into her coat until she'd finally understood. The memory gave her an idea, and she stiffened beneath his touch in eagerness before craning her dark head around to peer at him.

"I want to understand," she insisted, peering at him. "You were trying to show me something, right?" Her brow furrowed as she watched his face for a reaction. "Was it the mare?" Kohelet asked her question slowly, and then drew a horizontal line across his body. "Or something about the trip itself?" As she finished the second question, she drew a deliberate perpendicular line over his skin and then pulled back to see if he'd understood her cobbled-together method.