Knox isn't exactly accustomed to being called child. Luckily for the captive, Anaan is one of the kinder ancestors. Wheareas Knox might take wild offense and lash out in more ways than one, the burned but silver beast is willing to take his lumps.

After all, it makes sense that this massive beast would decide to lash out. He's been tricked and blinded, led here to an unfamiliar territory. Even his companion was threatened, and Knox knows very well the feelings that an endangered companion can stir within one's self. There's a shimmering pang as he remembers his loss—Manhattan's absence. But it's not something he can dwell on, not now with this stallion practically screaming at him.

Though Knox would act quicker, bully him back off the border and chase him into the wilds, his calmer ancestors dull his instinctive anger. Archibald's orders ring like a broken and particularly annoying record, and he remembers exactly what it is that he's here for. The wait is a smart one, too, and it yields results. Since he doesn't interrupt the larger, hairier beast, Knox is able to hear a more calm side of his captive.

A smile, more welcoming than wicked due to Anaan's fatherly influence, breaks out across his features. "My apologies," Knox says disingenuously but with the appearance of all honesty. "Sometimes the scars... scare people off. I thought you'd be more likely to hear me out this way."

He paused then. You know, for dramatic effect. Anaan's trauma was real, but it was something Knox was happy to exploit if it would elicit some sympathy in this other stallion.

"I am Anaan, and these are the Hidden Falls. I brought you here at the command of Archibald the Dauntless, Czar of these lands. We would like to extend an offer that you, well..." another pause, but this one more thoughtful. The smile that had faded when he'd mentioned his scars returns. "We'd like it if you'd join us here, in this herd."

And when he says this his eyes light up and his roman head, much like his captive's, turns up to look at the surrounding nature: the trees, the falls, and the overwhelming beauty of the trees. When he settles his gaze back upon the stallion and his companion, his expression is warm and his stance is broad and open, as if to say this can all be yours.

—