The black mare's mood was somewhere akin to somber as her chosen leader arrived, her thoughts scattered across her childhood home like stars across the sky. This was where her mother had helped her pick out a rock in those precious first days of her life and told her of the Covelympics that her grandsire used to hold in the Cove. And those boulders? She used to leap across them in the lazy summer afternoons when she'd had nothing better to do. That tree? She'd once tried to kick it in her frustration mid-winter, only to end up with a branch load of snow on her head for her troubles.

There were so many stories here, good and bad.

The sound of rushing hooves jerked the black mare out of her thoughtful reverie and she turned toward it with her ears pinned reflexively. She wasn't trying to revert to old habits, but the recent changes had left her so conflicted internally that she wasn't sure how else to be.

Tefnut appeared, and Rethe was forced to confront the fact that she was simultaneously the creature that Rethe most and least wanted to see. With a blink, she forced her expression to soften, but she made no move to close the gap between them as the red mare came to an exuberant halt, clearly high on the thrill of her decision.

It made Rethe's heart twist with equal parts joy and betrayal.

Tefnut's eager question only exacerbated the conflicting emotions in Rethe's chest at the realization that the red mare knew nothing of her. That no part of this move had had anything to do with her. That it would not have mattered to Tefnut either way. She blew out a slow breath before responding, her gaze flicking away from Tefnut's as she spoke.

"I have loved the Bay since I was a little girl toddling along this shore," she answers finally, not liking the way it made her feel vulnerable to admit to even such a small truth as this. Her tail flicked at her haunches and her jaw clenched and unclenched in turn before she turned back.

"I see you've made a new friend," she said flatly, not bothering to sugarcoat her accusatory observation. Perhaps it is for the better that she does not yet know that a different sibling of hers has been slated for a sub-lead position. "Perhaps your time would be better spent looking around with them."

It is a bitter, petty thing to say. An extension of the bitter, petty feeling in her chest. Rethe has always been a jealous girl, always aware of what she lacked compared to others. Arriving in her childhood home and being all but forgotten as Tefnut promoted two random strangers in the land her family had always held had led to a storm of unease in her chest so great that it was threatening to consume her whole.