Time had a funny way of speeding up when he most wanted it to slow down. His return to the islands should have heralded a cross-island tour designed to reaffirm old alliances and inquire after new ones, but it had resulted in the longest period he had ever spent consecutively in the Cove. Solomon was reluctant to brave the ocean again, fearing another spell of disorientation that would send him off-island for good this time. And while he told himself that his refusal to travel was due to concern for his herd and for the war he could feel looming on the horizon...it was not.

He was simply afraid.

Fear could not keep him away from his distant family forever, however. And so with limbs that he pretended did not tremble, Solomon walked beyond the black-pebbled beach of the Cove and oriented himself toward the Forest, where Evren and her family lived.

Solomon could not have claimed a close relationship with the mare. Their relationship - if it could even be called that - had been created and consummated in a brief meeting of minds and souls. It was not borne of any deep feeling or long lasting affection, although Solomon could easily see such a thing developing. The attraction had come easily between them, piercing even his morose outlook after leaving Feray and the twins behind, but it had not proven strong enough to hold them together. Evren had come to him in need of something that he could provide, and so he did.

Solomon didn't regret it, not really, but he did regret his absence from the child's life. Even if a relationship - a real relationship - was possible between he and Evren, he couldn't undo the fact that he had spent more than a year of the child's life away.

Thankfully, the swim between the Cove and the Forest was short, and he pulled himself ashore with no small amount of relief. After casting a final look back at the far distant island of Tinuvel, Solomon turned his attention back toward Luthien and scanned the treeline for any figures. Of all of the other islands, Luthien was probably his second choice for a home, but it had never called to him strongly enough for him to abandon the Cove.

Lifting his head, Solomon called out first for Evren, and then, in case things had changed, more generically for the leader of the land. Even if he wasn't able to find Evren and their child (if the child even existed), it could be potentially beneficial to begin making friends with other herds as well. Rougaru's threat might be empty… but it might also prove to have teeth in the end as well.

Solomon