When she first heard the sound of approaching hoofbeats, her heart had relaxed slightly, assuming - and hoping - that Annubis would have somehow understood her duress and appeared. She didn't quite understand how she had grown so fond of the silver-maned stallion so fast, but she couldn't deny that a part of her had begun to heal since coming back here. And while Lucifer might not respect her at all, she counted on the assumption that he would respect the stallion that ruled above him.

Instead, the stallion striding through the verdant jungle was the last one she'd ever thought to see.

Hymn froze in place, her pretty brown eyes going wide with shock as the long-lost Sigurdr reappeared and stalked his way forward. He said something to Lucifer, who said something back, but all she could hear was the sudden rushing of blood in her ears as her heart hammered with a frenetic combination of fear, longing, and confusion.

To look at him was like looking into a kaleidoscope, each part of her fractured into it's own little piece. She wanted to hold him. To fight him. To chase him from Paradise with bared teeth and jagged hooves, only to curl herself against him and sob out the ache of loneliness she'd been carrying since he left. She wanted to ignore him; berate him; scorn him. She hated him, but she loved him, but she was so, so angry at him. So angry she couldn't think, so desperate she couldn't control herself.

She trembled in place, no longer from fear, but from the chaotic mess in her own mind. Behind her, she suddenly caught wind of what Lucifer was saying, what he was implying and she turned her wide-eyed gaze back to him, her lip trembling.

"Don't hurt him," she pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper.

From across the clearing, her yearling daughter appeared, her painted coat dripping wet from the water she'd been playing in only moments ago. She'd been drawn back to her mother by the low murmur of voices and the prospect of another playdate with Annubis, only to be met with the strange three-pointed triangle of hostility.

"Mama?" She queried, uncertain, and then began to try and pick her way around the other edge of the clearing to snuggle up next to her mother, smearing both of their coats with pond water. Hymn was both frantically grateful and terrified that Promise was here, but said nothing, only hushed her daughter and tried to make them both back a step or two away toward the jungle's edge.

She still couldn't believe that Sigurdr was here, and a part of her was half-convinced he was some sort of apparition. Promise's gaze had skimmed over Lucifer, but as the beast's appearance made her queasy with fear, she had rested her gaze instead on the chimera. She felt a strange pull toward the stranger that she could not understand, but kept her shoulder pressed against her mother and her ears ticking to and fro.