This place really is cursed. Titania watches Jabari and Vanya’s terse exchange in silence, irritation pushing her ears farther and farther back. Why are they bickering over something that had started as a joke? Why waste breath on something so petty when their time together is so fleeting? The jungle’s depths are full of prying eyes and listening ears, and the three of them are obvious in this quiet clearing. Any softness in the black mare’s expression has frozen into stone, malleable only in response to Vanya’s careful reach. Her ears slide forward, and her deep stare warms, even as she listens and says nothing. The whitesplashed woman turns before she can begin to form the words on her tongue, and her elegant face falls with dismay when she leaves. Titania’s gaze follows the mare’s retreating form until she can’t see it anymore, and she remains poised there for a second, deep in thought. Jabari’s scent wafts towards her, puckering her nostrils, and immediately she shifts back into ill humor.

She turns back to face the red stallion, sighing heavily. Titania considers him, gathering herself before she speaks. Jabari means well, she knows, and perhaps he’s right not to trust anyone of Rougaru’s herd who weren’t “true” captives, but what, exactly, determines who is true and who is not? If Rougaru was capable of stealing from so many other herds, of beating accomplished, protective stallions, wouldn’t he be able to force a lone mare here against her will? If - no, when - they escaped, were they supposed to just leave Vanya here to rot because she didn’t have anywhere else to run home to? Wasn’t freedom its own reward?

Did he not hear her, pleading for the life of her son, and have his heart break, too?

“Now that you’ve made my work harder,” she says, irritation creeping into her voice, “what secrets do you want me to know?” They must be important, she thinks, if he needs to drive away a potential ally. She shifts her weight, skin twitching against the bugs that still accost her. “I am quite tired, sir, and Rougaru will notice if I stray much farther. Please,” she adds, her voice softening, “let us make haste.” She needs to find a calm spot again, resettle herself, and snatch what rest she can, but Jabari has the power - more, even, than Vanya - to help her in her quest for freedom. She can’t let her frustration get in the way of meaningful connection.

Paradise’s hot air tangles its long fingers around her, sticking like burrs. Jabari and Vanya had been here too long, poisoned by the dark energy floating like pollen in the spaces between the trees. More urgently than ever, Titania knows, she needs to be away from this place, lest the evil lurking in the shadows corrupt her and her precious unborn.