The youth's eager energy is infectious; Rade finds himself enraptured as he watches the nuances of expressions transform the perlino's features. The lines of curiosity and concentration that furrow Kendry's face smooth first into comprehension, and then conviction and confidence as he listens to the palomino's brief explanation. As an individual who often hides his emotions behind an impassive mask, Rade finds this transparency refreshing, and smiles - the warmth of the expression melting the hard amber of his eyes into molten gold - in unconscious response. He has forgotten the silent presence of the painted buckskin; his initial impressions of the pair's worth have been reversed. The pale boy overshadows - no, outshines - the other.

There was potential buried beneath his unblemished coat, lying dormant in the soft lines of childhood that still clung to his body. Rade was certain that he could unlock it, that he could mold the young man into whatever shape was most convenient for the Lagoon - or for himself. But even as he begins plans to that end, the palomino knows that he will not. He will not risk the inadvertent destruction of the colt's promise, not even for personal gain.

The Lagoon had enough pawns - it craved the intelligence of free-thinking individuals.

“The Lagoon is lacking in leaders,” Rade answers honestly, opening the door to give Kendry a glimpse of what he is getting himself into. “There are no shortage of men to command, but no one to manage and... motivate them.” Letting the illusion of his assumed authority fall from him, the palomino faces Kendry as a brother, as an equal. A partnership was better built on truth than on lies, after all, and he wanted this boy to trust him as much as he yearned for someone to confide in. “You can call me Rade. I am one of the Lagoon's associates, and I could certainly train you to fill any role. But if there's one lesson life has given me, it's that true strength cannot be molded. It does not allow itself to be shaped to suit those who surround it; instead, it must shape them.”

Perhaps the pale boy would understand the wisdom Rade sought to convey, and that his growth must be equal parts of shared wisdom and self-discovery. A stallion had to be capable of standing on his own, even when surrounded by others of his gender.

stallion // mongrel // 15.1hh // 6 // palomino roan // reba
debonaire x neassa