Though Bacardi always tried to find the right words, he can tell the moment he failed. The returned panic of the little mare made his heart hammer just a little harder in his chest. Especially as she tried to drag herself up. He wanted to protest, to make her stay at his side where she could rest and recover. But anything he could have said was caught in his throat. She was not wrong in anything she had claimed to fear, so how was he to banish them?


He barely begun to relax as she rested against him when her question filled his ears. The black trimmed appendages cupped forward, almost in disbelief. Had she truly asked him that? Was his answer not completely obvious? But Bacardi did not answer immediately. The thoughts of Havelle filled his mind and how he had missed her so. The loss of her had lingered with him longer than the loss of his mother. Though Soraya had filled a large void in his heart, he wasn’t sure when the one Havelle had left disappeared. The golden eye’d stallion did not question what had filled it.


"More than my next breath of air.” Bacardi said softly. He did not know if she would fully grasp what that entailed, but the painted stallion did not shy away from the realization or knowledge of what he had said. He would sell his soul if that was what kept her and Kesja safe. Would give his life so that they could keep living. Bacardi had never felt such a strong consuming need to be strong before, to protect what he felt was his.

five years. mutt. bay tobiano. fourteen three hands. of the bay.

"...speech"