The humidity struck him first; the air so thick with it that he felt as though he were walking through soup. The seawater he'd accumulated on his swim from Salem could not even begin to evaporate in the muggy air, and sat across his painted hide like a damp blanket. Fall had only just come to the Crossing, and the cold northern winds had barely begun to stir the fetid air of the Lagoon, and had not yet begun to lift the heavy summer miasma from the land.

Rehoboam hadn't missed it.

What he had missed, however, was his freedom. More than that, he missed Celestine. Surely by now she'd already given birth to their child; a fact he'd spent days dwelling on during his captivity. He wondered if it was a girl or a boy, or if they took after their mom or their dad. He wondered what Celestine had named them, and if the mysterious stallion that had stolen her was treating them well.

Azizi had not returned with news, and Rehoboam was doing his best to hold hope that it meant that the boy was well, and safe. That he had come across something else that was keeping him away... or even that, upon learning of what Shenzi and himself had done, had opted to cut Rehoboam out of his life. Any of that was better than the alternative of him being gone.

Rescuing Celestine and finding Azizi would have to wait, however, as Rehoboam had something more pressing to discuss. The painted stallion brought his gaze over to the overo Lagoonie that had finally come to free him and appraised him. He was unknown to him, although he faintly recalled Psychedelic from his time in the Lagoon prior. From what he understood, the man had moved on quickly to something else. Reh didn't know why he was back, or what his goals were, but he found himself in the strange position of being grateful to someone he didn't know.

Leaving Rhaenys behind had not been easy. She looked nothing like him, but the way Nyimara acted had given him little doubt as to the girl's parentage. She, too, was on his to-do list.

"I suppose a thank you is in order," Reh began with a clearing of his throat as he turned to face the other man, his posture stiff. From what he'd seen of similar battles, Psychedelic likely intended to imprison him the same way that Tyr had often done to the other stallions he'd won in battles. "What is it you want in return for my freedom? You don't strike me as the sort of stallion that does things out of the kindness of his heart."

StallionMutt15.2hGrullo TobianoSolomon x Keres