K1A1 remains stationary as Dögun bickers with the black mare from the sea, only going as far as twitching the exact muscle required to disquiet a fly that made the mistake of landing upon her barrel and thinking her blood sweet enough for a snack. As the dark mare throws her a quizzical look, seeking clarification for why the large percheron mare might be kept here, Dögun of course does not wait for K1A1 to share her own reasoning for the circumstance.

He uses the word family and K1A1 flicks her ears back, disdaining the assumption that she could be considered family. Family implied children and if there was one sort of creature K1A1 could not stand, it was a child. Their inexperience in the world and their reliance upon others made K1A1 cringe with contempt. Foals were parasites, sapping their mothers of strength and filling their fathers heads with the egomaniacal idea that they were capable of creating life and thus akin to gods. It was pure, unadulterated blasphemy.

“I am no one’s family. I am only K1A1,” she says with sternness in her voice that Dögun surely has never heard before. It is not often that the blue draft feels compelled to speak at length, and so when she continues, she hopes both Dögun and the stranger will hear the sharpness in every word.

“I have received an insufficient number of assignments. Unless this is rectified, my involvement within this battery will be terminated.”

It was as simple as that.

K1A1