It seemed that he could not escape his nightmares for long.

For the longest time, his nights had been uninterrupted and quiet, allowing him to remain with the main body of the herd whilst he slept. The first whisper of the nightmare had come several nights ago, with the vulgar vision of his mother lying in a heap in the middle of the forest. Vercingetorix had awoken and found himself pacing amongst the sleeping bodies of the mares for a time before he had slipped into the forest with the turn of the morning.

The next dream had been the most familiar, with the cackling, distorted face of his father hanging over him whilst he ran through the trees- suddenly dead and cracking over his head. Everywhere he looked he had found the body of his mother, crumpled and broken under the hooves of his father. The torment had run on, until he had been thrashing against the ground in his sleep, awaking some women and causing concern.

Enough concern for him to retreat into the trees in the middle of the night.

On this day, he is tired.

When the sun had fallen the night before, he had stayed awake, deciding it was best to inspect the swollen bellies of the rivers that ran through the forest and ensuring that their tides had calmed enough for an unsuspecting mare to gather a drink without fear of being dashed off against some distant rocks. All through the night and on to morning he had remained awake, eventually finding himself somewhere in the middle of the day without a minute of sleep to his name. Vercingetorix had distanced himself from the group, aware that his sudden absence would cause discomfort amongst the more wary of the females and some disorganization amongst the rest.

While he wandered, now, letting his eyes droop against the autumn sun that found his face through the thick roof of falling leaves overhead, there was a sort of cry that came up. Unfamiliar and loud, it broke him from his reverie and tore him away from thoughts of sleep. The red dun wheeled his head around in the direction of the sound and stared long and hard, taking a few moments to figure out which direction the herd lay in, and if the creature calling him was a straggler or a stranger.

Assuming the latter, the stallion moves off in the direction of the sound, finding himself heading towards the coast and moving through trees that were not as tightly knit as further into the forest. It did not take him long to find the golden woman, despite his exhaustion from lack of sleep, she stood out against the dull browns of the trees around her. An inkling of suspicious digs itself into his thoughts, and Vercingetorix is soon pausing quite a ways off from her, his eyes turning through the trees and trying to find a man that had used the woman to lure her out- for his paranoia seemed to have piqued thanks to his latest nightmares and sleepless nights. Seeing nothing that stood out to him right away, he finally moves towards her, ears cautiously turned backwards and nose extended as he tries to catch her smell long before he is within touching distance.

Once close enough, he can smell the scent of another male on her- one that is not entirely too fresh, but it was new enough to put the red dun on edge. Stopping a little ways off from her, he stands with his muzzle outstretched, nostrils flaring as he inhales deeply, not entirely too sure what to think of the woman that had appeared to have invaded his home. Vercingetorix does not know her, and for a moment or two he wracks his brain trying to remember the last time he had run into a buckskin, and is sourly disappointed to realize that he had not run into such a woman in a long, long time. Now his suspicion feels justified, but he still inches forwards slowly, nose still outstretched to offer her a quick exchange of breaths before quizzing her on her reason for coming here.