Triumph glistens in Rhadra’s dark eyes as the stallion halts and engages with her. At his question, she takes a moment to look him over head to hoof before returning her eyes to his with a small smile. He’s older than she is but not swaybacked and weighted with years. He speaks with a confidence that has been acquired rather than contrived, and a little thrill of apprehension jitters through her body. Rhadra has always had the tendency to poke at bears, as her sister can attest to, but it’s been awhile, and she’s never not felt that jolt of adrenaline each time she does it.
There’s a challenge in her expression and her tone as she answers the mottled male, “I see a stallion who walks with a limp. Someone got the better of you, did they, left a little bruise for you to remember them by with every step you take?” She shakes her head slowly, emboldened by the memory of the pale girl stiff-limbed and terrified just from the thought of her “Mamapapa.” Serves him right to be reminded via his injury that he’s not the top dog to everybody. No good parent would instill such fear in their daughter.
Her adrenaline is spiked with the red rush of anger as she recalls, also, that the girl is a full-grown mare who speaks with the voice and heart of a child. Now, it could very well be that she’s exaggerated to Rhadra about having to remain hidden and that her “Mamapapa” is leery of strangers, but there’s more to it than that. The girl’s body language spoke volumes throughout their conversation, only really relaxing when her belly was full and her mind distracted by games. A girl that innocent couldn’t convincingly pretend the depths of anxiety, sadness, and fear she’s displayed to Rhadra— who the girl calls “Nobody” in earnest.
Perhaps she assumes much, but Rhadra has always been perceptive. The girl didn’t flee to her hiding place out of love for this stallion, and she won’t stand creekside and pretend like she doesn’t know anything and let the pair of them go on their merry way without doing what she can to show the girl, at least, that “Mamapapa” is only mortal, and just as fallible and fragile as the rest of them.
Rhadra throws the gauntlet. “I see a bully. A mean old man who steps on others to feel taller.” Caught up in her self-righteousness, Rhadra doesn’t pause to consider how her words might affect things for the girl later. So far as this stallion knows right now she’s just a mare under a tree looking for a confrontation, and while she holds to her promise not to tell “Mamapapa” that she’s seen the girl, it would be a mighty coincidence indeed for her to accuse this stranger—without any prior provocation—of being kind of a dick. |