Desert

Zjeena, he murmurs, and Shiloh casts him a sideways glance. She had no context for the word. It could be a curse or a blessing as easily as it could be a name, but the way he uttered it was unusual. The smug confidence of his taunting from just moments ago had slipped from his voice and had been replaced with something akin to reverence, although she doubted her observation was correct. She had a hard time imagining that Rougaru was reverent of anything, much less anyone.

Either way, whatever thought had occurred in his mind had seemed to rattle him, and she found herself rewriting her earlier estimation of him, adding eccentric alongside the other, less kind, qualities that she'd accredited to him. By the time he shakes off whatever it was that had stilled his steps, she'd made it another five or so steps forward... albeit in the wrong direction.

Come on, he growled behind her, his voice grating in her ears. Her gaze flicked back to him just as he lunged forward with his head snaked down low, and she sucked in a breath of surprise as he quickly closed the gap between them. Despite her every instinct to remain mild and complacent, she couldn't help but lash out with the same side he bumped against, her hind leg making a single warning strike before digging into the sand to speed her progress.

Still, she said nothing, despite the way her ears had gone from ticked backward to fully flattened. Even if she knew how to replicate the spell she'd woven over him a moment ago, she wasn't sure it would do her much good. If anything, all she'd managed to do was press the reset button on their interaction and send them back to square one where he seemed to think he'd get what he wanted by being pushy.

At least he was correct about the water. The moment they arrived, Shiloh hastened forward into the boggy edge and dropped her head to drink deeply. Only when her belly was almost uncomfortably full did she lift her head to glance toward him again, lips pursed as she finished swallowing. While she still did not understand Rougaru's motivations, she had at least come to accept that he wasn't planning to kill her yet. If he ever found out who she was, she wasn't sure that would hold true, but for now she was at least confident in getting to see tomorrow so long as the desert didn't take her out.

She strode out of the water, despite the way the salt had begun to dry on her coat, turning it itchy and uncomfortable. It would be nice to submerge herself into that pool of water again and let it lap up along her withers, washing away the ocean but that was too intimate somehow. It was no shaded pool either, and very obviously lacked the giant gray stallion she'd come to be fond of. Nor was she willing to let her guard that far down in Rougaru's presence. Instead, she moved toward what looked like edible vegetation and plucked off a few choice pieces that looked the least tough and chewed them apprehensively while watching Rougaru.

"Are you going to hover for the rest of the day?" She asked neutrally, unable to stop herself. It was unsettling being in his presence, and trying to reconcile the man she'd heard about for years with the stallion in front of her was a task that she wasn't sure she was prepared for. Somehow he was both exactly like and nothing like the stories she'd heard, and the incongruity was making her uneasy.