Another day. He said, and Oswin offered a small nod of her head in agreement as they went. They’d only shared the brief conversation, but Oswin could see herself welcoming Temblor back to the Peak in the future if his travels ever brought him this way again. It wasn’t every day she found herself in an encouraging conversation with a herd leader on the islands and, given the Peak’s shaky reputation, it’d be good to have more friends than enemies.

“You are ambitious, Oswin.” Temblor’s words drew a wry grin over her mouth.

“That’s one way to put it.” She admitted, and her smile grew somewhat as her dark blue eyes glanced at his profile, then looked back at the Peak hills they walked quietly through. “Some may have more colorful terms to describe me with.” Another grin at that.

Her pink-lined ear flicked as he asked how long she had been Prime Minister. “A couple years now.” She answered, thinking back on when her sisters had elected her and all that had occurred since then. “But I was Prime Minister here years ago, before family matters took me away from the islands and my Peak.”

It was her deepest regret, returning to learn the sisters she fought side-by-side with, who’d been the ones to encourage her to lead them… were gone. They’d fought a war while she was away and it had taken the life of at least one of them. Oswin’s heart sank as she considered Macabre, but she swallowed it down and kept her mind in the present. Temblor needn’t know all the sorrow that trailed her in the shadows. “It’s good to be back home.” She said, more to herself than to him. Despite the difficulties that weighed down her current leadership, Oswin was happy to be back here at the Peak rather than out wandering the Mainlands.

“Rougaru?” She echoed, thinking of the silver-haired, green-eyed stallion that had met her, Bane, and Róisín in Paradise years ago. Of course Temblor would be curious about him, considering he now led the home the Wolf King had once claimed. “I haven’t witnessed his transgressions firsthand,” perhaps he had grown tired in his older age, “But I was warned when I came back to the islands that he was amping up to possibly start a war of some sort. Supposedly he’d caused a lot of harm during his time here…

I had taken my General and my Codebreaker to meet with him after hearing rumors that he held mares in Paradise against their will. Our meeting came up empty-handed and peaceful for the most part, but…” Oswin trailed off, a thoughtful quiet touching her brow. She gave her head a small shake. “There was something about him that set me on edge… Something that told me he wasn’t a stallion to be trusted.”

She paused and glanced sidelong at Temblor. “Has he tried to take back Paradise from you? He had disappeared from the islands for some time; I thought maybe he was gone for good.”

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.