Too much, it was all too much. How had his silent world shattered into such activity of late? He had not asked for it. Had actively sought to avoid it. Yet there it came once more. In the soft imploring tones of a golden angel invading his night. In the wary questions of those who virtually collided with him. The happy riddles of a smiling face. And now this. Thick dark tail, threads still damp from the sea's salty waters, snapped about his haunches and it is not merely exhaustion that causes his sides to rise and fall so deeply. Agitation at the cards fate has decided to deal him coils through the pit of his stomach, just yet another emotion the beast was unfamiliar with, and recoils from inwardly. With the practise of almost a lifetime it is not difficult to keep the inner turmoil from his features, though the irritation is there to see in the cracks that formed. Ears twitch back, flattening briefly upon his skull though it was evident the action is no longer directed to the brute opposite. The stamp of a hoof instantly sends a ripple of regret cutting through him as it jolts through aching muscles. Yet just a small flinch quivers along his heaving sides. Away. He needed to get away. To find some forgotten dark corner within those islands. Somewhere where others would turn the other way and leave the shadow amongst the gloom undisturbed. To shrug off all those emotions that bubbled uncomfortably within him and find that blessed numbness. Eyes shift from where they had wandered across the foliage he had fleetingly imagined might be his sanctuary, fixing back upon the other stallion. The coal black pools settle, observing with a new blaze of wariness the smile that has formed upon those features. Had he said something amusing? The puzzle is shoved away with a mental shrug, though under the guise of shifting aching limbs he shifts, unable to guess what might be passing through his opponents mind. "Anonymous." Like a sigh the name is uttered, the memories it carried every time he spoke it stirring like leaves in the wind. Anonymous he was born. Anonymous he lived. And Anonymous he would die. No one to nobody. "Will you permit me to rest a short while on the shores before I swim back?" A daring request considering, but one he made without thought. If Vodnik refused he would strike out to the waves and give himself to their mercy. If they were kindly perhaps they would support that burn to survive.