Common

She’s barely made any progress across the meadow when a stallion nearly as pale as Adair approaches. She’d spotted him on his own path of course, adjusting slightly to give him space but he’d shifted with her and angled a direct approach. To top it all off, he’s practically prancing, all showy and demanding attention. The young mare rolls her eyes at the display, studiously avoiding eye contact. She didn’t come here to suffer through the attentions of some useless stallion; she has a destination in mind and will not be deterred. If Adair found out she never even made it to the Peak because she got distracted flirting, she’d never hear the end of it.

Eira half-pins her ears and narrows her eyes at him suspiciously, but doesn’t stop moving. He doesn’t take the hint (of course) and follows alongside her, introducing herself. God, maybe this is what Adair meant when he said she wouldn’t like it outside the Cove. She’s never really been interested in socializing with anyone but her brother, Bone – what an uninspired name, so obviously drawn from the off-white gleam of his coat. “I don’t recall asking,” she huffs out at him, shooting him an annoyed, side-eyed glance.

They continue on like that for a few more minutes until Eira stops, whirls to face the stallion and snaps, “If you want to play tour guide be my guest, but if you’re going to continue to hover silently you can be on your way.” She tosses her head, brown eyes glinting in the light before she turns away again. “I’m going to the Peak; do you plan to follow uselessly the whole way there?”

Perhaps it is a bit too rude, but she’s still on edge from her fight with Adair and the pain of their first real separation her whole life. Another time she may have stopped to flirt with this Bone character, been diverted from her only goal and made to return to the Cove with her head hung in preparation for Adair’s good-natured insults. But not this time - she is going to push on, ignore the pale stallion and see the mountains she has been dreaming of for months now.