Common

Seeing him deflate should have made her feel bad, but that little accusing voice in her head was drowned out by the trauma she carried associated with the Badlands. The snowflake stallion wasn't Rafe, and according to his own testimony, was in no way related to the overo that had ruined her life, but that didn't matter. Whether he liked it or not, he had become a representative for crimes he had not committed.

Your mother was a fool to abandon her child, he says, clearly trying to soften her, except those words had an opposite reaction. Rethe was nothing if not fiercely loyal, and while she hated every stupid, selfish decision Kohelet had ever made, the tobiano mare was still her mother. And no one, no one was allowed to talk badly about her except Rethe.

"Excuse me?!" She snapped again, ears flicking forward and then slamming back again. "My mother didn't abandon me because she loved that idiot. He took her, and then fed her a bunch of lies, started a feud and ruined my life." Which was not, of course, the way Kohelet had explained it at all. Nor had Rethe ever bothered to ask her father, in part because if it were true, she might have to forgive Kohelet and she was not sure the lonely, frightened filly in her breast was ready to do that.

The actual abandonment had come later.

"You don't know anything about my mother, so I would appreciate it if you kept any mention of her out of your mouth." Her cheek tensed as her jaw clenched, tears of pent-up frustration beading along the bottom edge of her lashes. She hated feeling so tense and out of control, but it felt like the universe was laughing at her, sending her such a handsome, kind stallion and then giving him the Badlands as his home. For one stupid, shining moment she had even let herself believe that she might finally be done waiting for something to happen.

A tense moment of silence followed on her part, the white rims of her eyes practically glowing against her dark skin and eyes. "I'm glad he's gone." She finally huffed out, crossing her metaphorical fingers that Rafe's absence was the forever kind, and not the for-now kind. She looked away from the stallion beside her, the fur on her shoulder still quivering as if a particularly annoying fly was refusing to leave her alone.

It occurred to her that rumors claimed that the Badlands were where her father had gone, and that he might still be there. The rumors were old, and Rethe had largely dismissed them, but what if they were true? What if she could find out what happened to him and make him come back to the Bay? To take it over again and fix everything in Rethe's world. Made mercurial by the intensity of emotions in her chest, the black mare turned back to the gentle stallion at her side again, fixing him with a sharp look. "Actually, you know what? I will go to the Badlands, but I'm not staying. I have to see… something."

Her words were slightly cagey by the end, but she did not elaborate further on her thought process. Instead, she shifted her weight, seeming to indicate she believed the conversation over and their course set. Beneath the surface, she felt self-conscious and embarrassed, while also battling the familiar anxiety from earlier onto of a rising, unrealistic hope of reunion with her beloved father. Ultimately it all collided into a combination that was far spicier than Sihtric deserved, despite her sudden agreement to join him. "So are you going to lead the way or not?"