The red mare cannot help but chuckle at Çiçek's bashful look, and she nods in agreement, despite having no idea what Rivaini did or did not like. If Faolain was hard to reach, the silver mare might as well have been in outer space. And Siobhan knew that was no fair assessment, after all, she hadn't exactly made any effort to speak to the second guardian of the Ridge, but the mare did not strike her as light-hearted.

Even her pale coated brother was a mystery to Siobhan, and she had not rested well after learning Akadi and Roisin had played with him, alone. They were so young that she couldn't understand why a grown stallion would deign to play with fillies so much younger than him without a nefarious purpose until she had looked at Ailill again, and reminded herself that good did exist. It didn't have to have some dark reason. Roisin and Akadi were bright girls that loved to play, and their joy could bring anyone in, willing or not. And it certainly seemed as though he were willing, if the girls' bedecked appearances upon their return were any indication. It had been a while since she had seen the two of them so happy, especially after her fight with her dun daughter. Still, she intended to speak to him someday, to take his measure herself.

"That is true, " she muses aloud over a smile. "Although I cannot speak for Rivaini. I haven't heard much of her."

Silence draws between them then, and Siobhan waits patiently, sensing that there is something brewing in her light-hearted companion. When the young mare speaks again, she can all but hear the trepidation in her voice and something in her softens even further. At her question, the concern on Siobhan's face breaks into a warm expression and she grins softly.

"No, don't apologize." She interrupts, but soon falls quiet as the spotted mare explains her reason for asking. The explanation is not necessary, for Siobhan had her own assumptions when the tall stranger appeared on the beaches of the Ridge not so long ago. She hadn't pried then, and she didn't intend to now, but she was happy to know the purpose of the intruder. It is interesting that she asked the red mare to keep her secret, but she nods solemnly at the girl's request, knowing she would keep the knowledge to herself. Whatever reason caused her to want to keep it secret from Faolain and Rivaini was hers to have.

Siobhan remembered vividly the feeling of uncertainty she'd had after conceiving Laoise, and how she had confided in Diarmaid of her doubt. He had had no answers for her then, but it had not taken long before she felt the first gentle stirrings of her precious daughter and her fears had been assuaged. Such a time was not far off for Siobhan, but then again, she had conceived early in the season with Ailill. Waiting might have made some things easier for her, perhaps, but telling Bjorn would have been just as hard. And had it not shown her how little he thought of her? That conceiving another stallion's child was enough to discard her on the beaches of the Ridge like flotsam?

She shoved these thoughts away abruptly and cleared the sadness that had slipped on for one brief moment, and offers a slightly strained chuckle at Çiçek's quip.

"There's no need to apologize, truly." Her smile softens as she gratefully refocuses on Çiçek's questions. "I remember the same what-ifs running through my mind when I had my first daughter, years ago." Thinking and speaking of her lost daughter hurts, but she has no reason to make this mare more afraid. Fate had stolen her black daughter from her, and then had gifted her with three others that needed her as much as she needed them.

"You won't really know at first, not for sure, until they move." She offers softly, with a smile. "For me, both times before, it's been a lot of being really tired. Although, it is almost worse this time," she chuckles as she cranes her neck to look over the swelling of her body. It seemed so early for her stomach to be growing so large, but then again, she was nearly at the end of the first part of her pregnancy, before her child would begin to move. "Sometimes I'll feel sick to my stomach, and hate the smell of certain plants. And other times, I have the weirdest craving for just one particular flower."

Suddenly she laughs and shakes her head, "and you pee. All the time. It's absurd." Her lips twist into a bashful grin of her own. "In truth, it kind of feels like your heat cycle got extended, except instead of making you want to be around your man, it's all you can do to tolerate them sometimes."

Siobhan sobers slightly, her expression growing gentler. She did not know all the details of Çiçek's situation, but she was fairly certain that the tall stallion had taken his leave almost immediately after his experience with the spotted mare. Considering the two guardians had also approached the stallion, she highly doubted that he had forced himself upon her, but Siobhan was also aware that emotions were not linear, and pregnancy only amplified everything you were feeling.

"Did..." She wants to ask if the other mare loved the tobiano stallion. If she was maybe as conflicted as Siobhan was over the central figures in her life, but it feels invasive. So too, does the question that rises in her mind to replace it, of whether or not the mare wanted her foal. Sio makes a soft mew of annoyance at herself before rephrasing her question. "Have you felt any of that? It's different for each of us, I think. And I always fear the worst until I feel them move the first time."