Tarrant was enjoying company with Pulse even as he minded himself to allow her to have her space, constantly repeating a mantra in which he didn’t want to give her reasons to throw up guards against him. The sound of her voice when she spoke of the forestry of her home seemed warm, filled with a touch of love as Tarrant had for his own past homes. A part of his heart always swelled with pride for the cold and bitter winds of Tinuvel, remembering his foalhood and times walking the expanse of the island with his pale-colored father. It would always be Atlantis and the Shore which truly held him, which always cried for him to return and revel in the bright explosion of colors and the warm air of the tropics. He could have gone there, could have taken Wonka there instead of visiting Tinuvel but Wonka missed Ade as much as his father had and being within the Inlet was as close as he could currently be to her.

“Your birth home sounds lovely,”

Tarrant remarked with a smile. Even if she didn’t describe everything in rich detail, Tarrant already felt as though he could picture it. Perhaps it was simply the way she spoke of it that made him think such things.

“Have you visited any other islands while you’ve been here?”

His ears flicked and he wondered if she’d seen the endless sands of Salem’s Desert or the thick forestry of Luthien’s Thicket. The Lost Islands were something unique that he’d never come across in all his years of leaving only to return again. He would have liked to have shown her his Ravine on Cimarron, the high hike to what felt like the top of the world where the sunsets were beyond divine. But that was a lost dream and it only stole sorrow into his current state of mind which Tarrant certainly didn’t want to be feeling when he was on an adventure with someone new. Instead he forced a grin and pushed away any though of the red rock expanse he’d once been King of, focusing on Pulse’s reaction to the little area he’d taken her to. Her reaction was perfect and he felt the happiness sinking deeper into his skin. It caused Tarrant to perk up and give a lop-sided boyish grin which seemed to de-age him by a few years.

While she stepped forward, Tarrant stayed back with his hooves still planted half in the clearing and half in the woods. He watched her explore the small area and lower her eyes to look into the rippled pool of clear waters. Her question came suddenly and her eyes found Tarrant’s just as that smile slowly slipped from his lips. The stallion was quick to put it back on though it certainly wasn’t as energetic as it had been before.

“Oh, Adelaïda? Naw, she’s not here,”

Tarrant gave a dry laugh and averted his eyes, looking at the ground before him and the thin blades of yellow grass, sparsely grown.

“She’s off somewhere, either spending time with one of our other children or her siblings, I guess.”

Tarrant shifted and smiled.

“We parted ways, I’d promised Wonka I’d bring him back to the Islands when he was old enough and Wonka figured he was the proper age. I’m guessing Ade will probably make her way back here someday, she always manages to do that for me.”