Rehoboam has grown up with his father's stories of the Lagoon, and those stories are really only re-tellings of someone else's story from times before. He knows the Lagoon as the den of thieves that stole baby Isabel and her brother from the Ridge. He knows them as the interlopers who ruined his father's relationship with Marzanna for the sake of an afternoon lark. He knows them as the monsters that tried to steal away Zimiri and her son when he was small, only to lose the Cove Queen the moment she offered herself in Zimir's place. He knows them as the murderers who stole Uriah's first breath before he could take it. He knows the tales of their thefts from other lands, and saw for himself as Goose's family was torn in half by the bachelor herd's demands. He knows so many stories that the truth has become lost in the retelling, and the men that make the stories all but ghosts.

It does not help that the Lagoon is both more silent and more noisy than he has ever experienced in his young life. There are no children immediately underfoot, nor mares conversing in the background. There is no voice here at all, just the monotonous droning of a million insects hovering over too-still water.

I'm here. He turns toward the voice, and then pauses, studying the creature that had approached him. For a moment the patterned colt only watches quietly, offering nothing beyond an amicable nod of his head to the other's greeting. Reh isn't sure what to make of this man-not-monster, or of the too-attentive way that he stares.

What is it you need, dear one? He murmurs and a shiver tip-toes across his spine, sending tiny racing prickles down the narrow slopes of his sides. Rehoboam swallows, suddenly feeling very much like a wolf pup left to survive in the savannah. Sucking in a deep breath, Reh offers a tight smile that does not reach the nervous edge of his amber eyes. Even when he speaks he can hear his own false bravado overlaying the anxious clip of his words and he prays that the other does not call him out on it.

"A dear friend, I suppose." A flicker of his father's grin trips across his lips and falters as he continues, his confidence growing with each word. "I've come to see if the Lagoon is still taking on fresh meat."