The tension that follows Kanti's abrupt departure from the herd is undeniable, and it sharpens when Fell departs to assist her. Kohelet had hoped to speak to the little grullo mare after... well, after everything that had happened, but between the Kolfinna and Blue situations, she simply hadn't had the heart. Fell seemed to have settled down and now Koh had little Una to worry about, so she had let the matter slip to the back of her mind and now it was far too late to help her.

At first, Kohelet had stayed near the herd, wanting to keep everyone together and out of the way of the new mother and her child, but the temptation to check on the quiet, reclusive little mare was strong. She always seemed to sad and distant, and Koh feared that with the circumstances of this child's creation - wanted or not - her feeling of otherness might amplify.

So with a quiet word to Khoshekh to keep Una near the herd, she separated herself from her children and followed Fell's trail until the loud sounds of the mare's exeultant cry broke the still mountain air. I have a colt, she'd said, which only amplified Kohelet's anxiety. Things had been tense enough with Svenja's older colt here in the beginning, and Koh could only imagine that having the son of an actual enemy would be worse. She broke from her lover's trail then to move directly toward the sound and consequently arrived at a different angle to the tableau.

Kanti was grooming her newborn, clearly happy and relaxed, but in her shadow slunk the man that Koh so fiercely loved, his body language tense. He seemed to be circling around Kanti, moving to her front as if to speak, but the monochrome mare could not shake a feeling of expectant dread in the air. The tobiano's feet stilled as she appraised the scene, not at all sure of her place in it. Would Kanti take her interruption as friendly? Or would she take offense to being approached by a practical stranger so soon after giving birth? And what was Fell's intention here?

Kohelet - holding on so fiercely to the good she saw in Fell that her knuckles had gone white and bloodless - did not believe him to be capable of infanticide. She knew he had little reason to want to keep the boy - Qaletaqa, Kanti had said - around, but Kohelet had an idea. One that wouldn't necessarily be best explained in front of the mare, but one that could justify keeping Kanti and the boy around.

There was a reason lightning rods had been invented after all.

"He's beautiful," she called softly from her place on the sidelines, her gaze roaming from Kanti and then back to Fell. She would not stop him - nor could she if she wanted to - but she didn't think she would need to. No matter the evidence shown to her of Fell's baser instincts, she would never stop holding on to the belief that he was good at heart. Pulling her gaze back to the mare, she took a singular step forward and spoke again, her voice warm. "Are you okay, Kanti?"