a new world hangs outside the window
beautiful and strange
it must be I've fallen awake
I must be

The young mare breathes a heavy sigh of relief when the silver bay stallion finally appears. She could see the concern in his expression as he approached, and it reaffirmed her decision to come here. Wasp still wasn't so sure what it was about Rougaru that drew her to him. Perhaps she could blame it on her own daddy issues. She grew up never knowing Diamant, after all. But this stallion... He was powerful. He was wise. She knew she could learn from him. And when she first washed up on his shores, he could have forced her to stay here, among many other undesirable outcomes. But he didn't. Instead he talked to her and he tried to help. Wasp wouldn't forget that.

"Hi." She said shakily, offering the stallion a weak attempt at a smile. She was happy to see him, even if she couldn't conjure up the excitement to express it as such. "I'm sorry to just show up like this. But I couldn't think of anywhere else to go."

The dark, draft-bred mare sighs again, the sides of her barrel rising and falling in one swell swoop. She nickered softly to him, as if asking him to walk with her, before lazily strolling toward the jungle in the distance. She did like it here in Paradise, compared to all the other territories she'd visited.

Rougaru mentions Macabre, and she can barely keep it together. Tears begin to well in her amber eyes and she looks away from the stallion for a moment too long, in an attempt to regain her composure. "No, I haven't found them yet." She says, her voice cracking at times. "After our last visit, I went back home to the Peak. And good thing I did. The Lagoon is decimating our herd." She explained, her expression becoming more stony now as she thought of Cullen. "I will find them." She commits.

She gives herself a minute to try to gather her thoughts, but she struggles. The mare's jaw clench as they walk. What was she doing? How would complaining about her problems to a stallion help her in any way? "Cullen has beat me down three times in a row and I don't know what to do." She admits, finally letting him see her wince as she walked where her bruised shoulder ached. "How can I look my sisters in the face anymore? I'm failing them. I don't know what to do."

W A S P