The indignant sound of the mare's voice forces the stallion's ears to strain toward her instead. His gut instinct is to turn and look at her, but the young grullo isn't stupid enough to take his eyes off the larger male. As the warmth of her form dissipates when she goes to run, Tribulation's legs quickly move him straight back in her direction to create space between himself and the black. His mismatched eyes ache with the struggle not to turn and stare after her. When the beast before him spoke and turned away, the tovero only gave him a sneering smirk in response before finally turning back toward the trees and the retreating sound of her escape.
The speed and stealth with which Tribulation pursues the bay female might have surprised many. What few knew, aside from his siblings, was that the birthplace and recent home of the grullo had conditioned him quite well for such a chase. The terrain had been hard with bouts of moss, but so thickly embedded with tree roots and vines that to run in most spaces would have meant injured or even broken legs. And Tribulation had been a thing lingering in and flying through the dark even then, a mere whisper along the hidden trails that surely his sire had trod upon before him. So, though the Falls was a relatively new area for him, it did little to impede the young stallion.
Yes, her flight had gained a decent headstart on him, but Tribulation was never one to give up going after whatever it was that he wanted. The wind hurried through his ears, making it harder to place where she had headed, but the smell of her sang into his wide and flaring nostrils as his dark form followed her trail. He had slowed at some point. The scent of her was stronger than ever, laced with the salty tang of sweat. Taking great care, Tribulation found a glimpse of her through the low-hanging leaves: the sleek bay thing frothy with lather and breathing heavily.
It had exhilarated him to give chase as he never had before. Now to have her here before him in such a state? Heart pounding and breathing hard himself, the grullo emerged from the trees. Instinct told him to lower his head, pin his ears, and force the mare to head south. Actually herding her to a specific place would be an entirely different matter than the chase, but this was his first time out. And he wanted to relish it. "If you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask," he says with a wink and as cool a smile as he can muster with his mouth open some to try and slow his own breathing. The adrenaline was still pumping hard in his veins, making his skin tingle. Tribulation was far from spent and would give her all the chase she likely didn't want.