Common

Strangely, the chocolate-hued mare did not seem to take offense at my inability to respond. If anything, it felt as if she were watching me more closely, her gaze whittling me down as if by looks alone she could understand who I was. It was unsettling, but I was hesitant to move away lest it prompt her into giving chase. There was a self-confidence to her carriage that bespoke a driven personality, one that would not take kindly to my normal method of avoidance. A wolf to my doe.

And so I waited, anxiously shifting my weight between my forehooves while she stared me down. You luke frittend ofhis plice, she presumed, and my gaze tracked away from her for a moment to scan the area around us as I puzzled through her words. This area wasn't any better or worse than the places we'd been before, apart from the fact that it was where I had met Heartbreak and the other, nameless giant. I didn't know enough of the isles to know that this particular section was more dangerous than the Meadow or the Forest, but as I was pretty much equally afraid of all places, she wasn't necessarily wrong.

So I nodded slightly and brought my gaze back to her as she continued speaking, my ears flicking nervously. There was a subtle change in the intonation of her voice that was not so much a question - at least, it didn't sound like a question - but the air grew heavy with expectation of an answer. Most of what she'd said remained nonsense to me, although I was getting better at picking words out here and there. Come with me had been spoken frequently by the siblings as they led me from place to place, as had safe.

Safe seemed a bit strange to use in this particular context, given the distinct feeling of being hunted, but I tried to ignore that aspect for now. It wasn't as if I had a lot of choice in the matter, and I was pretty certain at this point that even mean company was better than no company at all.

Besides, the other word I'd managed to pick out of her little spiel was Thikkit, which I was pretty sure was one of the other "lands" on the same island as the Forest. It sounded familiar anyway, and I was pretty certain that it had been among the litany of things that Heartbreak had tried to teach me about while we were there.

The pressure to answer with something was hard for my anxious heart to endure and so, without truly understanding what I was agreeing to, I nodded, and crossed my hooves for the best.

homeless . loveinspired