If Annubis had a drop of water for every leader that has come and gone when his back was turned, he would be better suited to being called a seahorse by now. Irritation gleamed in his golden eyes when he returned from his unanswered challenge only to find that the golden stallion he had hit it off poorly with had up and vanished and another seemed to have already taken his place. ’What in the actual fuck!’ the words are a strangled roar from the young wolf and ones that he mirrors in his own exasperated stance. Obsidian tail flicks irritably against his hips as the silver stallion stomps noisily into the dense maritime forest where he had so carefully stashed Hyacinth. His proud head is high as he shoulders through the undergrowth. There is little affection or even tolerance for the pale mare as he nips her shoulder. ”We’re leaving! Let the damn gods settle the leadership here before we bother returning. This is ridiculous!” he snaps, snaking his head down to bump her hip forcefully once before launching himself clear of the retaliatory kick he is sure will follow. He does not bother to wait for her any further, truthfully, he is not certain that he could handle her snide remarks about his failures in the moment when both season and testosterone has his blood boiling hot beneath his skin. He has never been the most caring or dotting of stallions even on his best of days but neither has he been overly cruel. He would hate to stain that now.

Rougaru might have despised the Lagoon and its inhabitants, but Annubis had never been privy to that knowledge. So, while the figurative dust settles on Atlantis, his plan is to move his little family to the next best place. The Lagoon.

As he sludges through the marshy shallows, the silver stallion finds himself beginning to second guess his decision. The thick dark mud sucks at his hooves and drags at his slender legs until from the belly down he appears like something out of a foal’s nightmare. His dark lips curl upward in disgust but he trudges onward until at last the muck and mire gives way to solid ground and sandy soil. ’Gross’ he and the wolf are of the same mind. There had to be an easier way to enter the Lagoon than through the marshy sawgrass. It never dawned on him that if he had only changed his direction of travel slightly, he would have come onto the sandy shores of the Commons and from there it was a nice little woodland jaunt into the densely wooded Lagoon. However he had not been thinking clearly at the time and this experience had done nothing to improve his already soured mood. Had he come upon any of the bachelor stallions now, he might have given them a taste of the beast lurking beneath if just for an outlet for his rage. However be it luck or the gods intuition, the Lagoon is unusually quiet.

”Well I guess they don’t worry much about intruders here.” he muses aloud. He pauses to give his hide a good shake, hoping to rid himself of as much excess mud as possible. It was a futile attempt, one solved only by a good long roll in the ocean or whatever pond or creek of fresh water he could find. Although he intended to seek out the stallions boss, he finds himself more hopeful to come across a fresh water spring that he could roll in.

When at last he comes upon a shallow creek he does not think twice. Without hesitation the silver buckskin stallion splashes into the shallows and sinks to his knees, reveling in the cool waters as it drifts lazily over his body. He knows he should be out looking for Hyacinth, hell he has yet to find Vihar either. He knows he needs to find the leader here and ask for asylum until the battle of the balls rolls over on Atlantis. Yet despite the incessant yapping of the wolf, the stallion cannot bring himself to care for anything beyond the feel of the water washing away the dirt, grim and anger.