For one fleeting second she allowed herself to hope that it was Aoife, or Aleksi or even the nameless boy she'd held close in the days since he'd washed ashore with no memory of his past. It was a fool's hope, given that she had given them all strict orders to stay with Tigerlily, but it was better than the more likely outcome... that Cullen had come to collect on the debt he believed that he was owed.

Tense and worried, the red mare stared in the general direction of the noise until the sleek dark mare pushed through the foliage and responded to her inquiry with a gentle call. She was not a mare that Siobhan knew well, but then again, Tigerlily was the only member of her herd that she could claim any familiarity with. Time and trauma had stripped away the open welcome she used to offer to her herdmates, and had turned her into an anxious recluse that even now, watched the dark mare inch closer with mild wariness.

The black mare and her daughter were new arrivals to the Inlet, and while Siobhan had seen Bjorn treat her kindly as if greeting an old friend, she was not someone that Sio recognized from the Ridge. After everything that Nyimara and Cullen and Aranck had put her family through, she was not as quick to trust or warm up to new arrivals, especially with an infant filly at her heels.

By the same token, however... more eyes and more bodies would help protect Deirdre from Cullen, should he arrive. And while she knew that she could not logically have someone with her for every second of every day, the thought of having someone nearby that did not mean her ill was better than no one, especially if Bjorn could not be found again. She hated that she still craved the touch of his muzzle, or that she dreamed of what it would be like to curl up along the side opposite of Tigerlily, even as her heart cried out for Ailill at the same time. Having him so near, without being able to claim him as hers was almost worse than not having him at all.

Siobhan broke through her racing, maudlin thoughts with a sharp intake of breath and then decided - apprehensively - to trust the dark mare. Surely a mare with a young child at her side hadn't come to do them harm. If violence had been Nasa's goal, then surely she would have come alone.

"I'm Siobhan," she said finally, her expression gradually softening as she returned the majority of her attention back to the gold-dun filly, who - for the most part - had been unsuccessfully searching through her mother's tail for a way to return to the milkbar. She guided her daughter gently back into position before returning her attention to the dark mare and her young daughter. "And this is Deirdre."

It was… unusual for her, to be in a position of introducing her children to someone other than their father in the first few moments of their life, and in truth, Siobhan wasn't sure how she felt about it. She was used to being the one in Nasa's position. The one checking on other mares when they gave birth, not being checked on, and it gave her a different appreciation for how it felt to be on the other side.

"Your daughter is beautiful," Siobhan said with an indication toward the young filly. Her color hinted at the possibility of who the father might be, and she quelled the instinctive possessiveness that arose at the thought. He's not mine, she reminded herself firmly, her lips pressing briefly into a thin line as she struggled against the chaos in her heart and mind. And even when he was, he was never yours the same way you were his.

Sucking in another sigh, she allows her gaze to return to Nasa with a little too much brightness, a little too much forced cheer. "How have the two of you found the Inlet?"