Tyr. As the large stallion loomed closer, Oswin felt a tightening in her lower belly she hadn’t felt in a long, long time. She was old enough by now to know exactly what it was and how dangerous it was for her to be here now. Even as he lowered his muzzle to her, bending that handsomely thick neck down, Oswin knew as she stretched hers to meet him the next words out of her mouth should’ve been an excuse to leave. Before this energy she’d stumbled on could be stoked into anything more dangerous she should retreat to her Peak and let the Lagoon try to reform themselves as she focused on her sisters.

But his masculine scent, earthy, briney from the sea, filled her lungs and made her want to bite down and close her eyes to fight against the feelings it stirred inside her. Stupid, stupid, stupid… She mentally scolded herself. It’d been so long since a stallion made her feel anything, she’d gotten reckless.

Then, Tyr offered to show her the Lagoon and asked her to show him the Peak, and Oswin knew she wouldn’t be excusing herself to leave.

“I’d… like that, and in return, I’d be happy to show you the Peak.”

How would her sisters feel if they saw her lead the Lagoon General deep into the Peak and up the winding slopes to the summit where just the stars would twinkle and shine above him? She knew Róisín had said she’d been a captive of the Lagoon… had that been any of Tyr’s doing? What wrong things had he done before he decided to change? Was it… hypocritical of her to look over them because he was making her feel a way she hadn’t in some time?

Oswin cleared her throat as they began to walk and tried to find a neutral topic to discuss as though she hadn’t been gentling to him and leaning toward his scent in the grove back there. “So… have you always lived here in the Lagoon? Since you came to the islands?” Maybe if she could simply stick to getting to know the General, Oswin could claim this closeness was one out of a necessity. She was only doing recon for the Peak, checking out that the Lagoon was as they said they were.

She wasn’t feeling any feelings she definitely should not be feeling.

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.