The painted Chesnut woman expects to be discovered. Hell, she was making a point of it. Although the lands of Salem raised her, Twinge was no inexperienced yearling when it came to learning how to blend her red and white figure into the shadows of the woods when it pleased her. She prided herself in being able to move with relative silence through the brittle leaf litter of the forest. It had taken much practice and concentration but since this was where Bacardi felt he belonged, then so should she. But it is not her handsome Forest king who is the first to greet her.

Dark eyes narrow suspiciously as the stallion of smoke and shadows burst from the winding path from which she had only hours early come. He was not familiar to her, a foreigner who did not belong in every sense of the meaning. From the droplets of water still dripping from the water-logged tendrils of his mane to the tension coiled tightly in the muscles of his neck and hip, he looked every bit the stray. At least in her eyes anyway.

Crimson ears disappear into the thick tangle of her red and white mane as Twinge lifts her muzzle a bit higher. His words, though graveled from the hours spent swimming to Luthien in search of a mare to steal away, prove her right. He did not belong here.

A haughty snort blasts from her paper-thin nostrils as dark eyes glitter dangerously. A mischievous smile tugs at the corners of her ashen lips. Paradise is it? No longer he looked like a fish out of water.

Movement from the corner of her eye momentarily draws her attention and she turns to spare the second water-logged stallion a glance as he manifested from the path beyond. A well-laid plan indeed if she were a betting woman and no doubt the two fully expected to find success marking this venture. One on One, surrounded by the forest that she knew so well, Twinge had little doubt that she could best either of the beasts. Being of slight build and slender legs had its advantages when weaving in and out of the trees to avoid herding teeth. Two stallions, two pairs of guiding teeth, and two sets of determined eyes? Her odds were beginning to dwindle. But even this does not sway her resolve enough to turn her into a meek and humble lamb. She has never favored the easiest path in life anyway and stubborn and hardheaded were perhaps two of her best qualities (though no doubt Bacardi would disagree).

As if the mere thought of him caused the stallion to manifest, her king arrives. Deep beneath the layer of ice and seething anger in her eyes, there is a sense of relief at the sight of him approaching with calculated steps. For a moment she allowed herself the opportunity to relish in the sight of him, in the fierce protectiveness in his golden eyes as he studied the chimera stallion standing before her, his gaze never straying from the potential threat that stood now to end the longstanding peace that the forest had harbored. She turns her gaze back to the Paradise stallion as Bacardi’s solid frame halts at her side, his chocolate shoulder brushing the barest of touches against her own. The words that fall from Bacardi’s lips draw a near-silent chuckle from her ashen lips as the tension that her muscles held began to dissipate. She was safe. A renewed smile tugs at her labrums now, one caught between sinister and mischievous. No doubt Bacardi’s threat was clear enough for even the most addled of creatures to understand.

From just beyond the pair, the gruff voice of Voyager rings aloud, drawing a moment of Twinge’s attention. The obsidian stallion too had come to answer the call of intruders in their home. A silent prayer of thanks is given to the gods for that. Even should the smoke and shadow stallion and his companion decide to attack, at least now the odds were even stronger in their favor. Not like she would sit idly by and watch the stallions defend her without offering… assistance.

And yet, Twinge cannot help but to twist this opportunity for failure on the part of the strangers into an opportunity of their own. As much as she loved the peace that has always settled over the forest like a thick morning fog, her time away had shown her more than ever how much the islands had changed and it would not be long before Luthien too was caught up in the turmoil as well. An affectionate gaze is turned towards Bacardi as her carefully edged voice breaks the silence that momentarily settles between the two parties. ”My love,” she begins with sweetened words. ”I believe that they meant no ill will towards me OR our herd. They merely came as an envoy to negotiate a peaceful existence between Atlantis and Luthien…. Am I right?” she inquires, the honey disappearing from her tones as her dark auburn eyes now turn to the chimera stallion. A single brow rises, curious to see whether he would accept the bait she laid before him or if he would flee with his counterpart like the mangy stray dogs they began as.