Life in the Dunes is…very different from life in the Badlands. For one, Antares is a different leader than his father; and it isn’t even the way he sets up his herd. It’s just - he’s so willing to share. Beyond Lucien and Helios to the East, he also allows a number of other small family groups to live among them, each a herd in its own right. Quite frankly, Lucien didn’t know that people could do that - that land could be shared, so many families safely among the sand. He didn’t know so many stallions could coexist.

But it’s going well - sure, his only mare right now is Una (is she his mare? How does that work? Does she want to be his mare?), but no one has bothered either of them. Even his father let Lucien take Una without anything more than a smug little smirk and a pointed murmur to the filly about those sons he had mentioned.

Lucien doesn’t exactly know what he’s supposed to be doing - he’s never been like his brother or his father or even his half-brother. He’s not understood the push to violence, to collect mares and keep them close and confined. He likes what he has with Una. He’s never had a friend like her before, never had someone he can just…talk to. That won’t tell him he’s not doing enough or he’s not doing things right or he’s too soft.

As if he was projecting his thoughts out so loud she could hear them, Lucien finds Una standing at the small oasis that Antares deemed his. She smells better than usual, and for some reason he finds his gaze lingering on her for longer than usual. She really is awfully pretty. “Hi,” he says excitedly. It’s cooling off now that it’s autumn, but still miserably hot out. Lucien is built for this, born and raised here, but Una is from Tinuvel. She has to be miserable. “Wanna go for a swim?” He asks her, nodding towards the cool water.