"A daughter?"

His response was soft, yet his wide eyes portrayed the naivety of a newfound herd leader and a young man who was yet to experience the ideals of fatherhood - Caesisus, pale and petite, was the mother of a child and was to stay with him here in the unpredictable territory of the Ridge, and Asche found himself responsible for not only the life before him, but a life he has yet to even encounter and had not comprehended. Oddly, he found a calming sensation washing over him like the gentle tide at dawn. "Of course - she is welcome always. I would very much like to meet her." The young stallion leaned his pink and black muzzle towards her shoulder, bumping it softly as he let out a short and sharp huff of a breath against her pearlescent skin.

He was about to speak, continuing a ramble about how he had not yet fathered children and how the experience seemed so alien to him when he found his teeth digging against his lip, eyes watching hers as she began to speak of the man who had betrayed her trust and left her alone here with no company but the moon, stars and the sun that she seemed to stare so longingly at from atop the very cliff they now stood upon. The tone of the conversation had changed, and Asche found himself unsure when - the pause, the stumble over the word 'father' made him all the more glad he had not launched into a lecture about his own lack of children.

It took the man a little too long to put the two together, and when he did, his thoughts turned as dark as the patch that adorned his crown.

"Forgive me if I'm making an assumption Caesisus - but nothing like that will ever happen to you again. Not while I am here."

Men could be so cruel - Asche should know - it was what had turned him away from being a lagoon bachelor once he had abandoned the cove, and it was what had made him so wary of turning out like his father. Instincts were impulsive, but they could still be ignored and rational thought could be used in their place, even if it wasn't the easiest route to take, or the most attractive. "I won't push the topic, but if he ever bothers you again, let me know - please." His voice trembled slightly with tension, forgetting his awkward retreat from before and striding confidently towards her to stand side by side and stare at the ocean once more. "As long as you stay here you have my word that I will do my best to protect your family," he stumbled over the word 'your', desperately avoiding 'our', not wanting in any way to make the mare feel uncomfortable or as if he were imposing himself and propositioning for the role of her child's father just by offering them both a place to reside.

Oh, but they would be a family, he vowed. Perhaps Asche would not be childless when spring rolled around.