Jay snorted a final time to clear the salt from his nose, and took a half-step towards a more shallow part of the water. Though he was not injured, he was not looking to go through that experience again. It felt odd to share about his past with what was more-or-less a stranger, but that was always who he had been. A little too soft for the world, and a little too trusting. Thankfully that hadn't come back to bite him yet, but he knew that it wouldn't be long. His time that he had spent on the Peak had cemented in his mind that he didn't want to be a stallion. He didn't want to steal and conquer, or force his will on the mares around him. But that left him in a bit of an odd spot. A stallion that didn't want to fight, a stallion that didn't really want for anything. How could he be accepted in other places? He knew that no matter how non-threatening he looked, other stallions would likely always doubt his intentions.
So the mare's question was a tricky one to answer. The last time his heart had raced for a positive reason was back on the Peak when he was playing with the little filly that had become his sister. When they rushed into the calm, freezing water and explored the world around them.
But his heart had also raced when he had been hunted by the wolves that dwelled at the bottom. His heart had raced when he screamed for his mother and she had gone past where she could hear him. His heart had raced when he left the Peak, still too young to be on his own but forced into it anyways.
He tried not to let it bother him too much now. He was desperately trying to cling to the present, enjoy the life he was living now that he was grown, and not the one that he had been given. "I think..." He paused as he tried to gather his thoughts, and he ducked his head with shyness. "The last time I felt my heart race was when I approached you on the beach and you invited me into the water.: The unkown-ness of approaching a stranger, and the rush from feeling his breathing disappear for a moment, it made him feel alive. "I want to find my purpose."