Common

As it turned out, life on the islands was hardly as ideal as it had always sounded in the stories. The stallions were apathetic, the mares uninteresting. After her disastrous commons day (about which Avarice was more than a little bitter), she had taken to haunting the neutral areas of the Crossing, though she did not stray into the Commons again. She had learned her lesson the first time, and had no desire to waste another afternoon while two men bickered between themselves and then made a bunch of false promises.

She could tell herself pretty stories, too.

The day found her grazing at the border between the meadow and the commons, her dark-tipped ears twitching to and fro as she watched the hubbub die down. Autumn had been fun to watch, almost fun enough to join in, but the little mare had stayed firmly on her side of the territory. It wasn't until a pretty little mare looking for all the world like she'd just fought off a horde of demons that Avaraice's interest was truly piqued. There was something about the young mare that seemed… different. Ava couldn't explain it, but something drew her onward anyway, and she supposed that warning the other mare off the commons was a good enough excuse to approach.

Or, well, it would have to be because she was approaching, her hooves scuffing across the half-frozen ground.

"You know," she offered conversationally as she approached, eyes bright and a grin on her face that only trembled a little. Ava wasn't normally a shy mare, but after nearly a year in self-imposed solitude, social interactions seemed a little daunting. "You're probably wasting your time in the Commons. I've come to learn that most leaders - especially stallions - aren't worth it."

A thread of bitterness wound its way into her speech and she frowned briefly at the thought of her own interactions before settling across from the mare. "The last time I showed up I might as well have been a leaf in the mud for how much they were paying attention to me." Which was perhaps an exaggeration. Sihtric had told her they would run away together before he disappeared, but he had disappeared and that was frankly unforgivable in her book.