A movement caught Mercury’s attention as she fell silent, and she glanced over to watch Rade hover a bit before approaching the arabian. She didn’t recognize him exactly; she had seen him before and heard his name, but his appearance and title were two different pieces of information in her fuzzy and distracted memory. As her eyes followed him to the pregnant mare she failed to remember where exactly she had seen his vibrant coat before, and didn’t care enough to keep trying after only a moment. She had seen plenty of stallions in the Lagoon and this one was no different.

His voice was unfamiliar as well when he spoke, calling the arabian ‘Fatale’ before turning and addressing Mercury as ‘one of Felony’s mares’. It was an innocent enough question, but it made the young mare angry and she picked up her head and glared at him. ”No,” she said, her voice firm and unwavering. This was one of the few things she was absolutely sure of, and she would proudly inform anyone who asked or dared to bring Felony up in her presence. ”I hate Felony and he’ll never get anything out of me but curses. I suppose all his mares say that, but I mean it.” It felt good to be so determined about something other than sounding fine when she spoke. Of course, she was oblivious to the fact that Felony would in fact be getting a child out of her along with many curses and rude words. Fatale’s promise of her sickness going away by summer had comforted her greatly, and she spoke now with some actual confidence. Not a lot, but her voice no longer shook.

She didn’t respond when Fatale kept the subject of Felony going, mostly out of gratitude. She would have yelled at anyone else that she did not ‘belong’ to Felony, but Fatale had dispelled most of her fears of being sick and Mercury was hesitant to snap at her. When she introduced herself and Rade, the young mare nodded, a bit nervously; she was starting to feel as if she had seen the palomino somewhere other than the Lagoon, and it was upsetting her slightly that she couldn’t figure out why. Where else would you have seen him? she thought in frustration. To keep from getting too caught up in these thoughts, she introduced herself as well. ”I’m Mercury,” she said, avoiding both pairs of eyes.