Too bad for you, she taunts, clearly certain that whoever it was that held her leash was capable of fending off the hounds. The challenge of it - intended or not - gave rise to a spark of desire in my chest. Not the sort that caused such poor decisions on my end in autumn, but the sort that kept me here, in the brotherhood, where I had the freedom to do as I saw fit.

As I watch her, she does a fair job of pretending to be naive, claiming she had no idea what a stallion like me may want. I did not laugh at that, but it was a near thing, the captured laugh exiting my nares like a slow exhale. "Your herd?" He echoes, emphasizing the claim of ownership. She still had not named the lucky bastard that had claimed her or announced herself as being an envoy of any particular place so I remained skeptical. It was all too possible she was lying about all of it, bluffing the same way I was.

"Too bad for you," I answer with a curling smirk, echoing her own words. "I am a claimed stallion." Which wasn't entirely true, to be fair. I claimed the Lagoon far more than it claimed me, but that was hardly worth differentiating.

I let a beat of silence drop before speaking again, my head tilted quizzically. "Where is it you're from? Which lucky stallion curls into your side at night for companionship?" Again, my ears swiveled forward toward her as my gaze traced across the delicate contours of her face. She didn't look like any of the leaders I had come to know, but then again, I hadn't exactly been touring the islands before my abrupt vacation.

Stallion - Adult - 15.2 - Brown Overo