It struck him as they stood there that Nahawi had chosen a place so far on the border of the Lagoon that it hardly counted, a place where the muck and the mire had begun to give way to the quieter meadow and beyond. Given the long absence and the worried cry, the tobiano chalked it up to the Boss being anxious and not wanting to be overheard. As Boss, Nahawi had every right to be anywhere he wanted in the Lagoon, but listening ears and watching eyes were everywhere.

Reh's eyes narrowed as he began to speak, gathering from the way that Nahawi padded his announcement with justification that it was going to be a doozy. And he was not wrong.

Rehoboam froze as Nahawi admitted to claiming the Shore, slamming the mask down over his face so hard that for a very long moment, nothing in him moved apart from the shallow flutter of his nostrils as he breathed. Fury and frustration and despair surged in his chest like angry, separate waves, crashing against the walls of his hollow chest in cycles. Again. Again. Again, he had a Boss who dared to hope for a future, only to give it all up. Again.

What followed after was a proposition Reh neither expected, nor felt any desire toward. He had come to the Lagoon because he didn't want to become a herd stallion. He had no desire to gather a harem of mares and play daddy every day, always defending against different threats and dangers. He had watched his father run himself ragged doing that during his early days, had watched him try to raise a brood of fifteen children while the Peak and the Lagoon and Xiomara, and every other leader at the time, had tried to take a chunk out of him. He did not want to live that life again. Especially not if it meant abandoning everything he'd ever stood for, everything he'd ever tried to do here.

Nor would he have wanted to be subservient to his baby sister, not that he knew this would be the case yet.

"No." So many other words tried to cram their way into his mouth, but what difference would they make? What did it matter how disappointed Rehoboam was if the damage was already done? Nahawi had abandoned his post at the worst possible time so he could go home and play house. What change might have been jumpstarted by the dun would now get trampled by the boys crowing about how their were right and about how good would never prevail because even the man spearheading it couldn't handle it. This was Tyr, all over again.

"Enjoy your life, Nahawi." Rehoboam answered coldly, and then turned with the intent of ending the conversation to head back to the Lagoon. He had no idea if he would stay now, though he didn't know what he would do otherwise. He hadn't wanted to get re-invested last time, when he'd separated from his daughter, but he had allowed himself to get his hopes up for a better future for the Lagoon. Had allowed himself to dream of the day that he might get to go home to the Cove and tell his father where he'd been and not have Solomon attack him for admitting that he had joined the brothers. The second loss of those hopes was catastrophic and it had his thoughts jumbled, especially now that Osiris no longer needed him.

StallionMutt15.2hGrullo TobianoSolomon x Keres