Common

She flinched away from him, and nothing could have stung him more. He recoiled as if she'd slapped him, his hooves scuffing over the fallen leaves in his haste to give her space. Hatred coiled in her pretty brown eyes and he ducked his head low in apology, shaking it in denial as she accused him of attempting to claim her like property.

"No, I wasn't-" He tried to explain, mentally kicking himself for somehow not bothering to check if she was awake. Of all the idiotic faux pas he could have made for a first impression, of course, it had been terrifying a lone mare. Why wouldn't she think the worst of him given the season and her location?

The arrival of another mare seemed like a kind of salvation, but he was entirely too flustered to have any idea what to say to her. She didn't carry herself with the kind of pompous confidence that Gecko ascribed to most herd leaders, which begged the question of what she was doing here and why. She seemed kind and graceful, but her offer of a home was a question rather than a demand and he wasn't sure what to make of that.

What was he doing here? Perhaps this had all been a mistake on his end and he would have been better served trying to reach the far-off mainland rather than trying to cling to the Islands and his memories of his mother.

Both of the mares were loudly painted in direct contrast to his own solid dark body, and he found himself taking another step back, making another (albeit unconscious) attempt to shrink himself from the conversation. Grimacing slightly, he let his gaze go to the disgruntled mare first and let the words tumble over themselves in their haste to be spoken. "I'm sorry miss, I didn't mean to startle you, and I wasn't trying to claim anything. I just - I was looking for a home of my own and I guess I just missed that you were sleeping."

He turned to the other mare after, his heart thrumming uneasily. Salem had always held a special place in his heart as he had been born among its sands. It was also the homeplace and background of nearly all of his nightmares and the thought of going back, to the Hills especially, where the sands ran red with his parent's blood, made his mouth grow dry. "I appreciate the offer," he said tightly, eyes white-ringed. Nothing short of a forced claim would take him back there, and given her gentle approach he doubted that she would be the one to enforce such a thing. "But the Hills do not want me back."

His tail flicked uneasily at his hocks and he took another step back, elongating the third point of their triangle. "I'm sorry. This was clearly a mistake on my part." That same half-grimace, half-smile ghosted across his lips. "Sorry to bother the both of you."