At some point, he wasn’t sure which, Peyote found himself separated by the storm from the brothers he’d followed to Atlantis. The angry winds had driven him to seek shelter, and he’d found a hidden cavern to sleep in for the evening that stayed dry of the storm. He intended to find his way back to the sea and swim for Crossing Island as soon as he woke in the morning, granted the storm was clear.
The storm was clear, but…
Why waste a perfectly good trip to another island? The new boss had released all of the trinkets in the Lagoon, and Peyote’s father had always told him collecting trinkets was what kept the boys happy. His attempt at snatching the pretty brown mare from the Bay had been unsuccessful. Who was to say he couldn’t find something lovely to drive back with him to the Lagoon?
The painted grullo emerged from the cavern, clean of the dark muck he normally wore when in the Lagoon, gone after the swim here the night prior. It wouldn’t be until someone was close to him and deeply took in his scent that they’d make it past the ocean and find the heady musk of bachelor that still lingered on his skin. He did not intend to stick around long enough for it to happen.
Instead, Peyote dropped his pale face toward the ground as he trotted through the jungle, winding in no particular order, but following paths that’d already been worn by hooves before. It wouldn’t do to run up on the lead of the territory, or the entirety of the herd, but he hoped to find a straggler somewhere among the outskirts. It was how his father had taught him to take them - alone, they were more likely to be afraid. He remembered the bay mare had been scared of him at first, but then once her stallion challenged him, she’d grown angry.
This time he wanted to find one without company; one he could push out to the ocean and back to the Lagoon with him. Surely it would make the Lagoon happy if he resurfaced from his disappearance after the storm with a little prize in tow. Peyote didn’t know why it would make them happy, only that he knew he was supposed to do it.
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