Common

As her emotions escalate, his seem to abruptly wither and all of the angry hurt she'd been carrying spills all over her hands like an exploded ink pen. This is not how she had hoped today was going to go, and now that she's here, she's regretting coming here at all.

I don't know what the point was, he admits and her tail lashes even more angrily in response. When he goes on to elaborate that he had hoped it would make him feel better, she couldn't help the snarky three-bit response. "And did it?"

She almost wants to feel bad for him because of this mediocre indication of him being contrite, but she knows that she shouldn't. He had hurt her feelings just because he was feeling sad, and even Svetka - sheltered though she was - knew that relationships could not be built on such a basis. Or could they?

His final question prompts her lips to snap shut as she contemplates how much she wanted to tell a man she barely knew with the loss still so fresh in her heart. Only she doesn't get the chance to tell him anything before another stranger is approaching them with just as much swagger and twice the audacity. Svetka's pretty brow furrows as he abruptly inserts himself where he was most assuredly not wanted. Scowling, the little roan's head lifts again - doing her best to ignore the way her insides felt wobbly - and pinned the man with a glare.

"Why don't you take your own advice, jerk. We were having a conversation and nobody invited you-" Her tirade is cut off by the approach of yet another stranger drawn, as if by magnets, to their conversation. This one at least pretends to have manners, but there is no denying the fact that the two of these most recent arrivals seem to believe they have the right of way here.

"Excuse me," Svetka snapped, ears pinning. "But he won't be going anywhere until I am done with him. And you can take your Lagoon and your Peak and shove them up where the ss...su-" Her voice wobbled and she had to shake her head, desperate to keep awake despite the adrenaline coursing through her veins, warring with the sleep curling dark fingers at the edges of her vision. "Where the sun doesn't shine." She finished, rather lamely.

She had heard plenty about the Lagoon from her father's warnings over the years, but the Peak remained an enigma. Solomon had been far less cautious about the women's refuge, but had made it a point to lecture his daughters that any place, any ideology could become extreme without perspective. Which seemed like a lot of pish posh to the roan, and didn't really matter because she'd never envisioned herself a peak matron anyway. She wanted a home. And love. And someone to give a damn about her, not a bevy of horses that called themselves sisters while being practically strangers. Of course, she also didn't know that two of her sisters led the Peak, with her own baby niece at the side of the Peak Minister as well. If she was looking to be connected anywhere, the Peak was a safe bet, despite the fact that she bore no desire to be a part of it.