As the summer faded into fall, the two near-twins found themselves alone more often than not. Their sire had started to spend time alone with many of the herd mares, and chased them away with bared teeth if they interrupted. And if that wasn't bad enough, even their mothers had grown irritable and were less likely to let them nurse, and both boys had become near experts at goading their dams - adopted or otherwise - right to the edge before tearing off for adventures unknown.

Today was no exception. After a particularly narrow miss, in which even their sire cast a chastising look in their direction, the two weanlings raced off into the heart of the Cove with trouble on their minds. It did not take long for Reh to propose a plan, and even less time for the brightly painted Suleiman to agree. They had proposed it once, to Galahad, but had been thwarted from their goal of spying on the little pony mare next door.

Now, with no adults to cramp their style, they were free to get to the bottom of the mystery that surrounded the Bay.

They had listened to Solomon complain about the situation enough to understand that their dad was not happy that a mare had set up shop in the Bay after fighting off the stallion that had come before. The very thought of it made the colts laugh, amused at the thought of someone with so many cooties being a leader. But what was even more intriguing to the colts, was that she was small.

It was hard to tell from the Cove borders, but she looked like she was their size. It felt so crazy as to not be true, except they had seen it with their own eyes.

With a giggle of delight at their rulebreaking, the young troublemakers sped across the border of their home and into the deliciously forbidden land of the Bay.

At first, there was not much to see. The land was flatter than the Cove, and much quieter without the hustle and bustle of the herd, but the pine trees smelled the same and the same clouds drifted across the sky. They soon grew bored with their game and fell to their normal shenanigans of playing tag, leaping, and jumping across the various rocks and borders that they found.

Their laughter grew more raucous as they forgot about where they were and the dangers of straying too far. It was far too fun to race pell-mell across the land without fear of crashing into one sibling or another.

Until that is, they did just that.

A tiny grullo and white-colored rocket slammed into the side of something red and fluffy. Not yet a master at keeping his feet in battle, Rehoboam whirled like an off-kilter top until landing in a heap with a surprised bleat and a disgruntled, "Hey!"

Not far behind his brother, the golden bodied colt was quickly on the scene and pulled up short to avoid doing the same thing. With a nimble little twist, he pivoted away from the small fluffy stranger and trotted to Reh, his nostrils blowing wide as he snorted. "You're Valka, huh? Dad talked about you."

Annoyed, with the whole situation and knocked out his blind fun, Reh got back onto his feet and placed himself shoulder to shoulder with Suleiman, ears tipped back in apprehension. He toys with the idea of not apologizing because she's the enemy and shouldn't be trusted, but he knows that either of their momma's would have had their hiney's for being so rude. With a disgruntled sigh, the grullo colt spoke up again. "Sorry. I'm Rehoboam."

Suleiman switched the growing length of his tail across his haunches. He lacked the benefit of being bodily knocked out of the haze of rough play and struck the ground in front of him. With a bow of his neck, a precursor of the stallion he was to become, Sul challenged her with a smirk in his voice. "I bet we could beat you in a race."