Turns out, Peak life was not so different from Lagoon life, only instead of the warm and wet you had cold and dry. No wonder the ladies here were so bitter, and no wonder that - despite their avowed dislike of men - so many of them kept men as companions. Khar'pern seemed to be doing her best to pretend that in removing me she had removed a dangerous threat from the Lagoon's arsenal but I knew better; she had only wanted me closer. I had failed in stealing her away before she could give birth to our latest, so she had retaliated by making sure I didn't miss its youth.

Worse than even my own capture, however, was seeing that Vogue here, too. My own trinket here, but yet so far from me, as unlikely to return as the sky was to turn green. It made me wonder how the rest of my trinkets were doing without my oversight, if Hiyori and Lavender were alright. If the children I'd sired for the Lagoon had found brothers to latch onto and learn from. Such care for my sown wild oats was not typical for me, but it turns out that when you remove someone's ability to do anything useful, suddenly they have a lot more time to think.

I could not raid. I could not steal. I could not challenge, or barter, or bicker. At the moment, my only option for entertainment was irritating the ever loving hell out of whatever valkyrie was unlucky enough to get close to me, and even that lacked the sort of satisfaction I craved.

Garmr's bellow broke through the boredom and yanked my thoughts to attention. I knew that I was probably not authorized to approach, just as much as I knew that I did not give a rat's behind if I was or wasn't. The valkyries were in the middle of an election with both their General and their Prime Minister having abandoned ship mid-season - presumably out of fear of not getting voted in again. Which - I won't lie - considering the Peak's mission, I would have thought that their murder of Vane over the return of their own would have more or less guaranteed her success but hey, what did I know?

Smirking, I jogged toward my Boss, gaze sweeping back and forth across the rocky terrain to see who - if anyone - planned to approach.

"Sorry Boss," I say conversationally as I approach, my smirk broadening. "You seem to have them at a disadvantage. Turns out both their Boss and General took off already so it's just you, me, and the blue brat that took Vogue."

Stallion - Young Adult - 15.2 - Brown Overo