It was a strange phenomenon to look upon your grown children and see both their current mature state and the child they had once been. Nico had been born with his mother's fire and passion, and it had led to some clashes early on, mostly because Solomon had never truly been the sort of father he had hoped to be. There was always more he wished that he had done, whether it be spending more time with each child, or teaching them more one on one. He tended to get so busy trying to cultivate a forest that he sometimes didn't spend enough time nurturing the individual trees.

Nicodemus, and Parvati, had thrived despite him. Solomon would never claim to understand his daughter's strange living arrangements, but he had grown to respect and value her steadfast presence in the Inlet. Now that Nico led it, he hoped that they, too, would reach a similar relationship.

"Nicodemus," Solomon said warmly in greeting, a genuine smile curling along his lips. Their prior meeting about the monarchy had been brief, both because Solomon had been in a rush and because once his agreement had been garnered there was little left to say. The tobiano was still undecided on how to handle the mantle of his legacy but assumed that he still had plenty of time to make that decision. He didn't even have the crown to pass down yet, and yet worrying about who would inherit it took up more than its fair share of time in his head. "How are you finding leadership?"

The land did not yet seem filled with new arrivals, but that could be due to a number of different things. Perhaps Nico didn't want a large herd, or perhaps he simply hadn't had time to find mares that he wanted to share his home with. Solomon wasn't sure, but he thought he had caught the scent of at least one new arrival - his mother aside - and was curious to find out if she meant something special to him.

Solomon