A distant voice breaks through her daze, and her eyes flutter weakly as the sound of hoofbeats grows closer. Her head is filled with cotton. Sounds are muffled and far away, but the pain is slowly fading.

Something touches her check, and Mercury startles violently. Part of it is genuine shock that someone has come this close to her without her realizing, and part of it is the sensation of touch: it’s grating, painful on her skin, even though the gesture itself is gentle. The golden mare scrambles to her feet, side-stepping away from the something that has appeared right next to her, and in her haste to get away she slams a hip into the trunk of a tree.

Overstimulation gives way to anger. Her eyes are slitted, vision obscured by her scrunched eyelids and by the too-bright lights, but she senses no aggression from the stranger who touched her. Her father’s trusting nature mixes with her mother’s calculating logic, and Mercury chooses to ignore the vaguely amber-colored shape a few feet away from her. She regains her balance after her run-in with the tree, and then abruptly bucks twice, firing off two rapid kicks at the dull grey trunk. Slivers of bark spray over her dappled back as she settles again, and swears, shaking her head to try to clear the fog between her ears.

Mercury blinks, and attempts to observe the figure who had touched her. She can’t see him very well, but she can tell that he is tall, and rather thickly built with patches of white. She can smell that he’s a stallion, and recognizes his scent as the owner of this territory, though she hasn’t noticed any territorial markings until it’s brought to her attention by the painted male.

“Is this your home?” she asks groggily. “Sorry for… barging in unannounced.”