It was difficult to convince herself that she was here by choice, but Vihar tried. With the heightening tension between Paradise and (seemingly) everyone else, Nadja had wanted to take her children and leave. Vihar had sent Hyperion with her mother and siblings, but the pale young mare did not join them herself. Nadja had pleaded, but Vihar would not be swayed. She was afraid for Annubis’s safety if she tried to ‘escape,’ if indeed she was a captive as Rougaru had said, but more than that she was certain that her absence would bring the silver stallion’s wrath down on her father. She could not bring herself to stir the pot and then bail on the ones who would face the consequences.

That did not mean she did not want to stir the pot at all, however.

With her toddling son out of the way, Vihar found it easy to cause trouble for the residents of Paradise. Nothing huge, just her usual games of cat-and-mouse with Annubis, even though he wasn’t really the target of her antics. It was still enormously amusing to her to fight with him between their little snatches of affection, and it was also a great distraction from the tension in the jungle. And, at the end of the day, he was always there to sleep beside her.

When she wasn’t leading the buckskin stallion on her daily wild goose chase, she attempted to annoy Rougaru. Maybe, she thought, he would get so fed up with her that he would send her away, or act out stupidly enough to get himself into trouble. She sought him out at least every other day and made eyes at him, baiting him with snaps of her tail and pawing of her hooves into the black soil, only to tear away with a defiant squeal and dash into the shadows where her agility through the coils of vegetation made her nearly untouchable. She never actually looked back to see if the Wolf King ever chased her, but she knew if he did, she might one day be caught.

Still, she found great enjoyment in toying with her so-called captor, even if the risks were high. Everything was fun, and everything would be okay, if only everything was a game.

—

Although she knew the herd of Paradise was numerous, Vihar almost never ran into the other residents, so she wasn’t expecting to encounter anyone when she nearly collided with the taller golden mare stalking through the jungle on her way to get under Annubis’s skin. She slid clumsily to a halt, letting out a surprised whuff of air out of her flared nostrils. “You shouldn’t sneak around like that,” Vihar said harshly, scrambling back to put some space between herself and the other mare. Beneath her silvery fur, her face was flushed with embarrassment. She tried to play it off as simply irritation, burying her ears in her mahogany mane and fixing the other mare with a glare.

Was she one of Rougaru’s? She didn’t smell like the silver stallion, or his terrifying daughter. Vihar had a moment of relief when she realized she could have just crashed into Nyimara, if she was still around. This thought caused her to relax a bit, and her ears eased back out again. Whoever this was, she couldn’t possibly be as scary as Nyimara, right?

“Sorry for almost running you over,” she said, her tone losing some of its angry edge. She wasn’t truly upset at the other mare, after all — though she was loathe to admit it, it was Vihar’s own fault for not being careful as she raced recklessly through the foliage. Though her irritation was slipping away, she was still wary of the stranger. She had no friends in Paradise, and thought it safe to assume that everyone was against her. Still, it might be nice to interact with someone other than Annubis for once, even if she had to keep her guard up. “I’m Vihar. Who are you?”