As though she had grown quills all over her pink body, Isla bristled at the appearance of another unknown face. Her ears could not pin any more tightly to her neck than they already were, but she still turned her glare upon the graying newcomer with thick suspicion and growing annoyance. Isla had learned a few hard lessons while in the Lagoon, the first of foremost being that other horses meant conversation, and that conversation attracted attention, and that in cases such as these, any attention was dangerous.

I dinna care, Isla thought as the gray mare introduced herself, offering a name that was unfamiliar to the little roan. Their tense standoff (although arguably only perceived as such by one of them) continued and did not abate as the giant mare then proceeded to make an offer. That, if anything, seemed to break Isla from her frozen state and a bark of harsh laughter slipped past her lips, accentuated with an angry thwap of her dark, tangled tail.

"I canna-" Before she can even finish her sentence, explaining that the claim that Warwick had placed upon her stupid, sorry shoulders was inescapable, the very demon was upon them. Isla backed away, shrinking further into herself as the tiny pony launched himself at the gray mare.

The little overo was not unwise to the ways of the world. Even if Baba Yaga managed to get her out of this mess the way Arsinoe had (although even that 'rescue' had had precious little to do with who she was anyway), there would never be true escape. Whatever fairytale fantasy of free travel and of a happy family that Isla had enjoyed in her early years had well and truly abated. There was only existence, and only making that existence as least painful as possible.

Staying in the vicinity would only draw Warwick's ire further. And so while, had circumstances been different or Isla been anyone else, she might have jumped at the chance to put a target on this mare's back. As it was, she knew better. So long as stallions like Warwick and Vadim existed, so would mares like her, consigned to fates they had never wanted for themselves.

"Yeah, that," she grumbled, fully assuming she would not be heard in their clash as she turned away and retreated to a quieter patch of the Inlet.