Zevulun watched the young painted stallion approach them both, though his gaze wound up drifting over to his son. He was still processing the surprise that Lir and Castillon had grown close. Had Lir told Castillon of their shared relation? No… he couldn’t have. Surely Castillon would have come and talked to Zevulun about it if he did. There would’ve been too many questions for the boy to keep from wanting to pry out of his father.

Mentally shaking himself away from the thoughts, he glanced back as Lir stopped before them. Hi, guys. What’s up? Zevulun exhaled a brief chuckle as Castillon looked expectantly at him.

“It’s your decision, son,” he encouraged, gesturing his pink muzzle toward Lir. “Why don’t you fill him in?”

A brief look of apprehension rippled across Castillon, but Zevulun saw in real time as his son expanded his chest with a careful breath, pushed his nerves into a smile, then nodded and looked back at Lir. When he did, there was a more confident look in his eyes. Zevulun felt warmed through, blue eyes looking over both these young stallions. This was the future he’d returned to the islands to build, and to see it all in real time, with the expanse of the Prairie stretched out beyond, filled him with pride like no other.

“Well,” Castillon started, hardly able to keep his grin at bay the longer he looked at Lir, “my dad thinks it’s time we officially have someone occupy the third leadership position in the Prairie.” He only allowed the briefest of pauses before he started, “I don’t know if you’ve been thinking about where you might want to go in the future but, if you want to stick around here…” The buckskin trailed off briefly, a smile growing again. “I thought you and I might make a pretty good team around here.”

Zevulun tilted his head, looking at Lir. “What do you say, son? Would you like to be a part of the Prairie leadership?”