Alright so… hindsight is 20/20, maybe we shouldn’t have lost our cool right here. Maybe… further in the forest.

Psychedelic squinted, staring hard at Persephone. He’d little sleep, his mind was filled with cracks and fissures run so deep, he felt as if his insides were being poured outward. There was no hope – he couldn’t cover this up… could he?

“Talya’s pregnant.” He managed to bite out, and true rage filled him hot under his skin. He moved – he had to – and chewed at the air, pawing the ground beneath his feet and digging a worrisome trench. “Two years old. Barely an adult! Pregnant!” He tossed his head, ears flicking back, eyes rolling. Clearly unstable. An overprotective father having a meltdown, maybe? “Bob” always had cared a little too much about her, and his entire reason for bringing her to the Forest was to hide her away from the stallions on the mainlands who’d started to pay a little more attention to her.

“Talya can’t handle a kid,” he spat, “she can barely handle herself.” He shook his head and blew a hot breath of air. He squinted, drawing out silence as he delved deeper into his fractured mind. “I don’t even think she gets what happened,” Psychedelic said, shaking his head, “she can’t even tell me who the father is. Just gave me another one of her pointless nicknames that tells me nothing.” The quiet wariness of his voice was abandoned again, replaced by a new burst of anger the more he spoke it.

Psychedelic shook his head.

Hey so this is all real touching or whatever but uh… you think Persephone here has run into Aurora?

Psychedelic blinked, his eyes leaving the distant forest to instead focus on the leader. No… no… if she knew what had happened, she’d have descended cruelly upon him the moment she caught up to him. He still had time to cover this all up… he still had time to figure out wherever Aurora was hiding and make sure she didn’t ruin this for him and for Talya. Maybe he’d even find a way to take care of Talya’s kid once she gave birth…

“I’m sorry Persephone,” he managed to bite out, clearing his throat. “I’m just… worked up.”

And batshit crazy.