Psychedelic chuckled lightly, playing in to the tease while ignoring the darker underbelly of a laugh that lurked somewhere inside his mind. Pain he’d inflicted – physical and emotional – to mares and stallions alike, flickered through his mind like rapid fire. It was all the horrible things he’d done throughout his adulthood until now, stuck with Talya at his side and forced to maintain a distance from the one place that accepted him for who he really was. A piece of him longed to return to it, to lay in the filth until it covered him whole, black and sticky rather than healthily plump and with a fairly clean coat.

“Now, now,” he chided playfully, “I don’t know about any broken hearts. I might have caught the eye of a pretty lady now and again, but she’d always go for a stallion with a home over a rover like me.” His weight shifted, and he shook his head lightly. “Never blamed them for that. I grew up without a home and it isn’t the way to raise your kids.”

Psychedelic glanced toward the shadowed innards of the forest, wondering where his daughter was. Would she have turned out differently if they hadn’t traveled the first year of her life? Would things have been better for her if she hadn’t separated from her mother? Nah, Evaline probably would have hated her because of how she was sired. Maybe it was unconventional, but for the best after all.

Frowning, he came to a sudden realization, glancing back at Persephone. “You know, it isn’t frequent I come across a mare who wants to lead a territory. I’m all for it, you’ve done a damn good job of leading the Forest, but… is it rude of me to ask why you want that kind of responsibility?” A grin cracked suddenly over his mouth. “Look at us… a stallion who never wanted to lead a territory or have a herd, and a mare who has just that.”