She had not expected to be approached so quickly.

The weather here was colder than the pale mare was used to, and while Liat slept beneath her body, the mare would occasionally turn to lend a warm nose to the filly's shoulder. Brushing a loving touch to the girl's body was her preferred way of reminding the slumbering child that she was still here. It seemed as though there was comfort in being close to the girl, and while Liat was not oblivious to the potential dangers to being in an unfamiliar place, it did not seem to put her at unease.

The edge of the trees had been a good enough location to offer to the two of them shelter from any turns in the weather, and it was forward enough on the land that they would be spotted quickly- but she did not think this quickly.

As the trees rustle softly not too far from where they stood, the mother goes into a defensive stance, angling her head in the direction of the sound and preparing herself to defend her offspring at all costs. Though thin and almost frail in appearance, she had the determination that came with being a mother- she was fully prepared to sacrifice herself for the safety of her child. Beginning to expect the worst, Volpe is surprised to find that the creature in the bushes that appears is another child- looking somewhat healthier than her own slightly underfed and skinny daughter, and moving through this place as though she owned it. Ears still pushed back, she expects another mother to come crashing out of the trees like a mother bear to defend her own young from an unfamiliar woman.

Volpe imagines she would have done the same if young Liat had disobeyed her and gone into the trees without listening to her mother's soft words of warning. Before the mother of the painted roan could appear, the feeling of being watched brings a subtle shiver down the spine of the perlino. Following her instincts, she brings her head around to greet the snapping of twigs and branches underfoot and see the blue stallion appearing as if out of thin air. Not once does she falter in her defensive stance, now uncertain as to how he would treat his own offpsring- despite knowing that the perlino dun would be dropping his child and being aware that the golden filly under the body of the trespasser is his own daughter.

She does not know him, and so she does not fully trust him.

Listening in silence as the stallion dismisses the filly and, she assumed, the mother that was waiting just out of sight in the trees, Volpe's hard, amber stare burns into Solgar's face for a few more moments before speaking up in a quiet voice. “I told you there would be a child.” In the subtlety of her voice, there is a sort of dislike of the stallion there. She has the voice of a woman that does not trust the father of her own child, and despite all that she would sacrifice for the girl, she had come here to find Liat a home where she would be guaranteed to be protected and safe. Staying with Volpe would not ensure that the dunskin would make it to maturity, for her mother lived on the edges of civilization and travelled alone. The first-time mother is thankful that her child still sleeps through their quiet exchange.