It’s only a momentary victory that Zephyra feels her teeth grab the brute’s skin and hair. She won’t delude herself into thinking she’s caused him any kind of injury, but at least she gets some satisfaction out of it.

”We must do nothing,” she says bitingly, not giving him an inch. The girls know this place better than he does, especially given the season. The ground is already slippery, and having been born and raised on Tinuvel, they can instinctively put their feet in exactly the right place.

Nymphadora seizes on the stallion’s hesitation and takes a couple steps away from him, wondering what on earth would have made him decide that since he couldn’t find who he’s looking for, he’d just swipe someone else in her place. She’s never liked or understood the process of forcing someone from their chosen home, as she had told Orkaan back when he’d told them what he’d done.

”I don’t know her name, but she was obviously smart,” Zephyra replies, backing off her aggression but not letting her guard down as the man suddenly seems undecided about continuing to try to force the twins apart. ”She showed up here looking none too happy, so I knew that Orkaan had forced her here. I told her that she needed to get away as soon as possible, and it looks like she took her chance when Orkaan got lax in his security.”

That had been during the time that the sisters were giving each other the cold shoulder, so Nymphadora had not been there to witness that conversation, but she doesn’t doubt Zephyra’s account. The monochrome mare had made her feelings about Orkaan’s actions quite clear, so it isn’t surprising that she would warn off anybody she could.

When the stallion makes a move to begin herding her away again, she plants herself firmly in place. She doesn’t need her sister to fight all her battles, and she is becoming alarmed at how frantic the stallion is getting to make her leave with him. When he uses her nickname, she realizes that something more may be going on here. They had never introduced themselves, first of all, so there would be no way for him to know her full name, let alone the shortened one she has preferred since she was small.

Her expression is one of obvious confusion, and a glance at Zephyra shows the same mystified look. ”Only friends and family know to call me that, and I don’t know you. Where did you come by it?”