Mercedes bit back a reply that had equal chances of sounding either pleading or rude. She had told him to go away, but the time between now and then had her wondering if she had changed her mind. The mare flicked her ears and made an irritated face at the stallion. “Well, maybe you should have thought of that before poking your head into my tree,” she said, remembering too late both of her attempted pledges to silence. She quickly shut her mouth.

When he beckoned her out of her shelter with implications of a better one, however, Mercy had to restrain herself from bouncing out excitedly. She managed to keep herself still for a solid five seconds before taking off after him, trotting up on her white-spashed legs until she strode beside him. “Why is it you get to live wherever you want, huh?” she asked, trying to dispell any possible suspicions he might have had of her interest in his company. Before she could pay attention to his response, however, she noticed they were a fair distance from the ground.

The path was still wide, but Mercedes slowed and inched behind the stallion instead of walking beside him, just in case. It wasn’t a terribly long path, and by the time it was narrow enough for her to truly need to file herself in line, they had left it, and sqeezed into the rocks of the cliff itself.

“Oh,” she muttered. Every sound echoed off the rock walls, and Mercy flipped her ears about in alarm. “It’s loud,” she whispered fearfully, unused to such amplified sounds, especially those of voices.
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