Numb. It was something the stallion was was accustomed to feeling. One of the few states of mind that he ever sought out. Yet this, this was different. This was not that empty silence, nor the cold armour that he wrapped about himself. There was no hiding amongst the shadows from this. This was not a lack of emotions. This was because of them. Him, in a herd. Where had it turned from battling the stallion’s fury to being offered a place as his second? An ache still spread down the black side from the giants punishment, the flesh stung where teeth had broken through, still mending with only a couple of days behind him with a limp to his step. That pain his mind seized upon, focused upon and welcomed. That he knew and could understand. His body had been damaged before, from the very day of his birth and onwards through the years. The flesh would heal, the bruising would fade. All would be a normal but for an additional scar perhaps within a few moons. Yet the confusion that chased at his thoughts, demanded for him to face what had occurred, it would not allow him to shove it into the corner of his mind to be forgotten. And it could not be. You are nothing. He had been nothing. He was nothing. No one. But now he was more also. How did that work? Limbs came to a stop, barely even aware he had been moving. 'The bigger question, is why?' Why had he said yes? The thought whispered through his mind, nudging him to take stock of the world about him. The island where he had thought to flee the curse that had come upon him of late. From the waters he had emerged and for the tree's shadows he had aimed. And somewhere along the way his world had spun about. A weight rest upon him, unfamiliar and unsettling. Eventually a word bubbled up to put name to it. Responsibility. No hiding, no watching the world pass by untouched. No one. Could no one could still have a purpose. A scent slithered through the maelstrom of confusion, the thoughts that poked and prodded insistently. Dark eyes blinked slowly and stared forth as though waking from a deep slumber, a low snort emitted absently as he took stock of his surroundings, small ears cutting finely to the winds whistle across the rocky barren terrain. Or not quite barren. A desolate sight she cut against the surrounding landscape, halting him in his tracks. Silent watching eyes lingered as he remained still. Was this a test? To see if he was truly worthy? He was not. Fate should have known that by now. The brute Vodnik would see so sooner or later. How many times had he turned and left such lone figures to their thoughts and secrets? But something in that stance held him. Even without that strange weight of responsibility dragging down about his throat that broken dejected silhouette ahead pulled him forwards. Nostrils flared detecting no scent of the stallion he'd done battle with about the maiden, but others drifted on the air. It was not until he was closer did the pile of rubble become clear to his eyes. No, not rubble. Over the rocks his gaze spanned learning the edges of what had once been a cave, where now weeds and flowers peeks out between the stones. Not recent but... his gaze tracked back to the creature before it, as damaged and fragmented as the cave at her side. "Only ghosts live within," his low tones rasped, far from warm or comforting, but the truth was there to see even if he knew not which ghosts she watched over.