Ridge

Without putting words to the feeling, Deirdre can feel his eyes on her. She had always been able to sense him, even when they'd been very young and full of hope and dreams. Arroyo had been her rock, her cornerstone, her guiding star. She knew who she was because they were together, and she feared what might become of her if they were ever to be separated.

Her dark-rimmed ears tipped toward him as he crossed the sand, and she leaned into his proffered caress, melting into his touch as one might into their recliner at the end of a long day. It does not take him long to read the troubles on her face and she half-smiles, the expression unusually morose for the dun. Deirdre was often pragmatic to a fault; sometimes a little impulsive, more given to reacting on feeling rather than logical thought, but almost always willing to take things at face value.

She hesitated for a moment before replying, leaving her head rested against him for as long as he would allow it. "A mare came while you were gone," she begins, her dun-webbed forehead furrowing as she reconsidered that day. "I think she was fleeing from the Lagoon but we didn't really talk much." At all, really. By the time Deirdre had arrived, the young mare had already turned to willingly follow them back. "The Lagoon was already there when I got there, and she was already going back with them... so I don't think there was really anything I could have done to help her."

Her tail flicked against her hips and he lips pressed tightly together, the guilt in her chest not matched to her recollection of what happened. "I don't think I could have stopped it...but it feels like I didn't do enough." She turned to bury more of her face against him. "What if it was our girls?" She asked, referencing both Sionainn and Azahara. "I want to believe that someone would step up for them... but how can I, when I didn't do more?"

She knew she was keeping a tighter leash on Sionainn than the girl deserved. Hells, by the time Deirdre was her age, she and her sister had travelled to half the islands without a care in the world, their parents already off on whatever new adventure they fancied. It was unfair to keep her here, and yet Deirdre could not imagine life without her baby girl close by.