A new mother. Psychedelic wondered who the father was idly; a passing thought that would leave almost as soon as he speculated over it. As he was the only stallion in the Forest and had been very diligent in keeping himself away from the mares of the herd when they went into estrus last autumn, he could safely know it wasn’t his. Was it another band stallion? Was she avoiding him, hiding here in this Forest? Was it one of his Lagoon brothers? She didn’t have any freshly healing scars, but that didn’t necessarily mean it hadn’t been a Lagoon bachelor. Not all of them were as rough around the edges as he was… or as Kasabian was.

“Congratulations,” he said, smiling pleasantly. “Children kind of have a way of worming themselves into your heart.” That much was true. Even before Psychedelic had crossed paths with Talya and she’d stuck to his side like glue, he’d always had a weird soft-spot around kids. It was honestly his biggest downfall.

Psychedelic wanted to talk about the Lagoon, but he was smarter than that. He’d been playing this acting game long enough now that he only shifted his weight as if to shrug nonchalantly. “I’ve lived away from these islands my entire life,” it was a half-truth, not entirely a lie, “but a stallion told me about this place and I decided maybe it was time to find somewhere safe to raise my daughter. She’s getting older, attracting unwarranted attention.” He grunted and rolled his eyes. Technically he couldn’t blame stallions for getting themselves riled up over the site of a young, healthy mare, because he’d once been the same way. But this was Talya. This was his daughter. Psychedelic wasn’t going to just let her fall victim to whatever idiocy these stallion’s had planned. Plus… with Talya being so special, he doubted she’d fit in very well with a herd as it was.

“And you?” He asked, turning the attention of the conversation back to her. “Is this your first time actually coming to the islands?”