“Please, be my guest.” She said as the large, spotted brute spoke of the door being opened both ways. Truly, Oswin wasn’t sure what her sisters would think of the Lagoon bachelors climbing the steep incline to the top of their beloved Peak, but hopefully they wouldn’t mind. There was Hollis to worry about, and Oswin’s protectiveness almost made her want to lace her ears back and tell this stallion she better not catch him anywhere near. But that would be assuming he was some monster and he’d be coming to the Peak to cause trouble, which was something she was trying not to do any more when it came to the bachelors. “I’d be happy to show you the top of the Peak.” She carried in her even tone and smiled – though it didn’t quite meet her blue eyes. “The views from there are like nothing else on Crossing.”

As if she’d come to offer a neighborly invite. Still, Oswin was showing that she accepted her poking around could lead the bachelors to come poking, too.

He asked her what it was she was seeking, and Oswin paused thoughtfully. It was only now that she moved, lifting a slender pale leg to walk her a little further into the Lagoon shadows where she could make a lazy half-circle and look more closely over him. He, like her, was decorated in scars. She could sense the tenseness that hung in the air between them but, despite that, he was otherwise being polite.

“I just want to know that it’s true.” She said, plainly. Openly. “I guess… I guess it just surprises me to think that the bachelors have turned a new leaf, I’d never have thought it could happen.” It wasn’t complimentary to say, and she knew that, but it was honest. As a Peak mare, she’d never had reason to trust the Lagoon before. Even Ernesto, as darling as he’d been, had always managed to side-step her questions of politics and distract her with touches when she tried pushing him for information on his brothers. “The idea that there isn’t one soul here who wishes they weren’t, that no one is among these shadows and mud being tormented, is… new to me.”

As sad as that was to admit, that was true, too.

“I talked with your boss, and I’m sure his words should have been enough to placate me, but they weren’t. I needed to see it for myself.” She finished explaining, even admitting to her own fault – that she couldn’t entirely take Rade’s words at face-value – and then her eyes narrowed curiously on her current company.

“Why do you want to see a changed Lagoon? Your boss told me why he’s been working toward it… But why are you?”

oswin
this is as brave as I know how to be.
I know it’s gonna hurt you, but please… be a little proud of me.