There exists in her, I realize now, a belief that I am something more than I am. That beneath the snarky attitude and witty comments and rougish charm that I have some secret, hidden heart of gold that wants to be the sort of man she wants me to be. She's not the first to make this mistaken assumption, but of all the mares I had brought into my life, she is the last one from whose lips I'd expect to hear it from.

I had not realized we had walked in silence for an hour. Such a thing was unlike me, and I could only ascribe such complacency to a lapse of judgment. I was not a hound on a leash, nor would I be led like one. My paw was only momentarily caught in her snare and sooner or later I would be back with my pack. But I was tired and sore and exhausted and had not realized the distance or steps we had taken until suddenly the conversation was once more upon us.

She bristles at my sarcasm and throws my name back in my face, but it does not change my assessment of the situation.nor does she refute my statement about the trinkets, which only further underscores the fact that she wasn't looking for a ceasefire, she was looking for a way to get herself elected. What better way than to come with the sisters with a "ceasefire" package all bundled up with the Lagoon and freshly freed trinkets to pad their ranks?

I had not realized that in addition to tame, Khar'pern thought me stupid.

"Does it really matter if it was an accident?" I snap. "The Lagoon General is dead. And now, in addition to us conveniently forgetting the fact that his death came at the Peaks hands, for the freedom of a Peak mare, I'm supposed to also tell my boss that in addition to forgiveness for the Peak as a whole, we're supposed to send the trinkets - and our children at their hips - to the Peak, too? You ask for too much."

Her pleas as to the wellbeing of herself and our children do not have the effect she likely hopes they will. I do not wish them harm, of course, but my infatuation is with Khar'pern, not our family. Perhaps in her eyes that makes me less of a partner, I do not know. The fact that we are even here, now, with her attempting to reason with me, defies all expectations. I am a Lagoon stallion and have been since I was weaned; I am not sure what misplaced heroism she expects to coax from me.

Bad things happened to horses no matter where they were. Lagoon. Peak. Commons. Even in the territories themselves. Especially in the territories. Fighting against the very nature of our species was a war I had neither patience nor foolishness to partake in.

My past position as marauder meant that my main focus was in the recruitment - willing or unwilling, mare or stallion - of bodies for the Lagoon. I was not typically in the business of giving them away, much less to our most loathed and longest-running enemy. "And of course you're not asking for a permanent ceasefire because the second I make my way back, you and I both know there will be yet another valkyrie running into the Lagoon demanding another pound of flesh."

"What does the Lagoon stand to gain? A boy raised to hate the very place he would then belong and a stallion that will make his way back there regardless." I was no longer ranked. No longer anyone but a body to the Lagoon. My words, devoid of the customary teasing I often use with her, are hard but not harsh. In a strange way, I am proud of her for trying, for being brave enough to try to strongarm me into a deal that benefits only her people, but that does not change my duty as the Marauder. She might have stripped my title from me and perhaps even prevented me from regaining it, but I did not so easily want to sell my brothers out.

"Reverse the roles, Khar. Would you accept?" Because I knew, no matter what word left her lips in reply, the answer was no.

Stallion - Young Adult - 15.2 - Brown Overo