It had not taken him as long as he had feared to settle down into the forest. While every night he still heard the whispers in the trees and imagined that the sun would never return once it had set, this place was slowly beginning to feel more and more like home, and less like just another terrain that he had stumbled upon. It was refreshing to feel like he was not simply squatting in a place and calling that his home for the time being, and it was even more refreshing to know that there were some familiar faces to come home to after he had been gone for a short time. Ah, but Vercingetorix never ventured out of the forest for very long, preferring to keep his adventures to a span of a couple hours, and always being sure to return to the heavily wooded territory long before night threatened to fall.

Still, despite all his comforts to be had in the middle of the forest, the nightmares never failed to keep him company in his sleep. The red stallion's downtime was often short and interrupted by his own memories that were dark and dismal, more often than not they were represented by a dark shadow that lingered in front of his eyes whilst he slept. Upon waking, he would imagine that there was a figure hanging over his body, and he would feel the immense pressure of someone watching him. Every time, though, it took only a blink to make the feeling and the illusion of eyes disappear, and he frequently had some few minutes to compose himself before going out into the herd and pretending as though nothing had happened.

He wondered if anyone would notice that he rarely slept for longer than an hour or two every time he disappeared for his slumber. He wondered if they knew that there was something wrong.

As the day is in full swing, the red stallion begins to feel the soft wear of exhaustion fogging the edges of his vision, threatening to overwhelm his senses and throw him into yet another fitful sleep. For now, though, he is not so interested in curling up in a secluded spot and sleeping, instead he is once more making the rounds of his now blatantly familiar terrain. While trudging through the snow that, while light and still fluffy from a snowfall not too long ago, the man happens upon a fresh trail of hoofprints, and assumes they belong to another woman that had yet to come out of hiding upon his claiming of the land. Perhaps this would be the happy distraction for his slowl declining status of conciousness. As he walks, following the trail, Vercingetorix occasionally throws a glance about the trees, always fearing that he should spot the ominous figure from his nightmares and discover that this was all a dream.

By the time he starts to think that everything is just a little too quiet, he has spotted the dappled mare, fat with child and lingering on the edge of the terrain. This puts the stallion on edge, perhaps already assuming that a stray has found his home or perhaps someone has come looking for the wrong person. Any matter, as a call cuts through the once silent air, the red dun makes towards her, turning his head to the side to make one more sweep of the area and spotting the other stallion. Another stallion that looked to be trespassing in his home. Switching gears, Vercingtorix approaches the two from a swift jog, positioning himself between the unknown mare and the other stallion, quickly putting it in his mind that the woman on the edge of his territory was now his, and the other male was now a threat to the safety of her and the other mares that had taken up residence here before his arrival.

Words are lost for the time being as the forest stallion juts his head forwards, slicking back his ears and snapping his teeth, doing his best to drive the stallion out of his terrain before he can make off with the dappled grey mare that, apparently, has now become Vercingetorix's concern. Once he feels that the grullo has backed off enough, he allows a moment to look back at the mare, now certain that she had come looking for him- why else would she be at the edge of a terrain and tentatively calling in? She did not know the man that lead the land here, therefore she must have been looking for him! “Are you alright?” He blurts out to her, his voice a little more flustered than usual, but still holding a semblance of a calm edge. For women, the stallion preserves his cool. With the trespassing male still on his mind, the red dun wheels about once more, stepping forwards almost menacingly as he assesses the threat. The other male is smaller than himself, and this inflates what little ego the red dun man had, and already he is addressing him loudly. “You!” He booms, listening to the single word echo off the slim trees that surround them. “What do you want?”