the small palomino mare is more comfortable at the ridge than she had been in the prairie… she likes the thick foliage and shadowy depth that this terrain offers. it is dark and peaceful, though she knows danger may lurk in that darkness. there is lush grass, as there had been in the prairie but unlike that open expanse, there was also seclusion and privacy. sure, they had the little thicket of tall grasses that her mother had made home on the shoreline of the prairie, but this was better, quieter than that. her heart aches for daphne but she is now more certain than ever that the prairie was not where her future lay.

dahlia greets the smoke colored stallion demurely, trying not to think of the attentiveness his blue eyes pay to her curves. her shyness is not a ploy, not meant to be suggestive or coy, but truly her. she focuses on the worry and concentration she had seen just a moment ago so hard in his eyes and the how he forces it away as he addresses her. his voice is pleasant and unbothered, suggesting that her own worry of how he would take her absence at the herd meeting was unwarranted. she quirks her head at the foreign words, which looks exaggeratedly questioning with her wry nose. her answer is concise of course but she speaks them with a softness and thankfulness she hopes he will recognize as genuine. i am thankful to have washed up on this shore. and glad to have your company now…

she has many questions for him…about the troubled look he quickly pushed away, if he might know something of her mother or who to ask about her, if she would be allowed to go freely when the time came and she was ready… that was a question she had recently started pondering… there was commotion on the islands, she knew that much at least, and somehow he was involved… this made her think that perhaps she had better tread carefully around the painted stallion. she does not offer any of these questions up now though. she steps closer to his masculine form, comforted just by his proximity, and hopes he won’t find her quietness awkward. she knows she should ask how he is, but she hopes her silence will be inviting to him, not irritating as it had been to daphne.