Caine nearly expected her to argue as she stared at him at first, grateful when she gave a nod and whirled around and began to head out of the Lagoon. The white capped stallion pinned his ears, head lowering to snake along behind them. Should a brother catch them, he would explain he was escorting a nosy Peak mare out of their home. But thankfully, no one seemed to notice. If they did, they didn’t care.


When they crossed the border, Harmonie whipped around almost immediately. Caine stopped just as suddenly, head jerking up as his vitiligo ears twisted forward. Insanity quickly filled them. No hello, no name for the colt beside her. Only the askance of what he could never give. He had to bite his tongue to keep from gaping at her. But as her eyes softened, filled with the intensity of emotion, Caine knew what prompted her to ask the impossible. But it didn’t make the situation any easier.


“You’re right, I do not belong in the Lagoon.” he replied. “I am a nomad, Harmonie. You must surely know this for the amount of time we spent together.” Caine had thought they had grown to know each other quite well in the quiet moments they stole together in the Lagoon. Maybe it was only for the colt she asked the impossible from him. “I carry their name so that I might see the world without being claimed. I cannot trade that freedom for chains. To be a trinket of the Peak.” Caine had never tried to be so gentle as he was now. He did not want to hurt her, but he wanted to be as truthful as possible. “No more than you were supposed to be a Trinket of the Lagoon. I knew your sisters would come for you. I only stole the chance to get to know you. But I would never keep you as you ask of me.”


Caine wanted so badly to reach out to her. To touch her red neck as he had so freely done before. To brush his muzzle through her mane and along her backbone. To breathe in her scent so that he didn’t have to smell the Lagoon. But Caine refrains only because he fears rejection after what he has just said.


“I did not think….” he blinked, glancing to their son then. For all the times he had partaken in the fun, the pleasure, it had never resulted in this. Caine had thought himself infertile, but the proof now stood before him that he was not. “You were never supposed to be a parent alone.” Because it was not supposed to result in this. “I am sorry for that.” Caine was not sorry for their son, only that he had not given any support during his birth or raising. He doubted that knowing would have changed anything.


Caine’s green eyes returned to Harmonie then and he let out a soft sigh. “What we shared together…. It has not changed.” Not for him at least. He still longed for her in the lonely nights. “But I cannot change my true nature.” Would she truly ask him to be someone he was not?