Warmth floods his soul at the gentle reassurance Promise spoke. His golden eyes glaze as again her innocence reminds him that there are still pockets of innocence and goodness left in this world. Hymn might have thought her flight to the commons was an attempt to better her daughter’s life but…. The unknowns that Annubis has seen, the twisted minds he has met. He cannot ignore the rising desire in his own calloused heart to protect that innocence… to protect her Paradise.
The tension in his muscles begins to ebb as the little filly returns to four hooves. At least that much distance should settle the mother bird’s ruffled feathers. But Promise’s soft, brown eyes filled with such sadness as she questioned her mother leaving him aching. His protectiveness, however right, had hurt her. His sterling skin flinches as he drops his broad head. Parenting was a far tougher job than he remembered it to be. That or Holo took more after him and her mother than he wanted to admit. The most he had to do was try to keep that girl out of the worst dangers and caged within the borders of Atlantis in general. Thank the gods she had not been nearly as intellectual as Promise. Hymn deserved more credit than she had been given.
Her reply to the filly draws him from his thoughts. Small, fluted lobes pitch forward amid the tangled knots of his obsidian mane. Multifaceted eyes blink slowly in understanding, a small smirking smile tugging gently at the corner of his whiskered lips. She was not wrong.
Somehow her words reassure him that, beyond simply being his normal bull-headed self, Hymn seemed to see the goodness of what he tried to offer. A chance.
The urge to reach for her rises so suddenly that he finds himself taking a step into the space that separates them before he can even bring his mind back into control. Not for the first time, he yearns to feel the soft velvet of her lips pressed against his, or the warmth her slender body might feel next to his own. He wants to trace the curves and lines of her two-toned skin and memorize the floral scent that clings to her mane. He wants to tease and play with her if only to see the softness of her smile and how it causes her auburn eyes to sparkle in the dappled sunlight that filters through the canopy. For the first time, the first time in so long he cannot remember, family… his family, becomes more than an unattainable goal.
But before he can manage to ruin anything with the progress they have made together, he lets his gaze drop and turns towards the shadowy jungle that stretches before them. Awkwardly he clears his throat, shuffling his hooves beneath his muscular form, ”I.. uh…I should warn you that there is another stallion in Paradise. I’ve granted him the northern edge of the territory with the promise that he will leave the rest in peace…” he continues, pausing a moment to risk falling into the depths of Hymn’s gaze once more. ”I am hoping he won’t be here long but just in case…. He is… well… a very very strange beast. I will do my best to make sure he keeps his word but in case I wanted you to… know.” he adds, glancing down at Promise’s wagging tail as she continues to nurse enthusiastically from her dam. The ghosting smile grows in warmth. ”He is as black as death and with a mindset to match. I… would not trust him and had I known the deal, however temporary would not have been struck.” he adds with a grimace. Yet another decision he has made that hasn’t turned out to be the best. He exhaled a weighty breath, being a responsible leader was filled with far more difficult decisions than Rougaru ever bothered to warn any of his sons about.