Ears pressed forward, Tarrant’s green eyes watched the young palomino he stood with. There was something in his eyes, in his body, that struck Tarrant a little too close to home. Something that sobered the mood between them rather quickly. “Yes.” He answered first to Conquistador’s word and then gave a small nod shortly after. Thoughtfully his gaze pulled from the yearling and into the far depths of the jungle as if watching another time even though it had happened quite far from the jungle they stood in. “It was after I had lost everything,” his voice was quiet, not so much that Conquistador would need to lean in, but enough to know there was heaviness in those words. “After my home had been swallowed by the sea.” After he had watched his loved ones die and felt that he had failed them.

“Your father gave me a home.” His gaze swung back to Conquistador. “He showed me compassion.” A low sigh fell from Tarrant’s mouth. “I wish I could have stayed longer or gotten to know him better than I did, but grief was too fresh and Ade –” he broke off, almost as if he’d choked. He hadn’t said her name aloud in so long, even been afraid to think it sometimes. He cleared his throat and gave the slightest shake of his head as though physically rousing himself from the thought. “Well, there were others I needed to follow to the mainlands.”

She would have been fine if he would have stayed behind, Tarrant knew that. He couldn’t though. He needed her. He knew, Tarrant had always known… he needed her more than she would ever need him. It was why he was here now, plunged deep in the jungles of Paradise, afraid to even say her name and fully feel what pain would tear his heart asunder.

He inhaled a low breath through his nostrils and drew his green eyes to Conquistador. Something told Tarrant that he didn’t need to ask what fate had befallen Debonaire and his heart sunk, thinking of the stallion that had shown him kindness when he hadn’t needed to. It seemed so many that he had known were gone these days... Though maybe he was wrong. Maybe hope still existed and Conquistador would instead tell him how Debonaire left for the mainlands rather than what Tarrant's sinking heart was saying.