The mare might've gone deaf. Or shell-shocked. Maybe heart-broken? Or deaf, blind, and non-scenting. What was the word for those who could not smell? He wasn't quite sure. In any case, Argetlam felt an acute sense of guilt, as if by declaring her pregnant he had caused it, while in reality he had never sired a colt or filly, despite growing older. Isdira would've laughed at him. "Single still?" She would've chuckled, with a toss of her charcoal mane. No, she didn't toss her head. Instead, she would've stared him down and turn away with a bit of a huff. When the dark mare finally did speak, she was stuttering, frozen. More guilty pangs. "I'm really sorry, Delinne." Argetlam apologized, shame-faced, amber eyes cast downward to the dark earth floor, turning near-black as the sun died a fiery death.


Much to his consummate relief, they turned away from the treacherous waters of the foal-world, and the thoughts it conjured up in Argetlam's rather thick pale skull, and instead she began offering advice for his predicament. Gather... a group of soldiers? First of all, the metal-bender wasn't sure there were any soldiers here. One of the mares stolen might've been a warrior, but he couldn't recall ever really meeting her. Neither had he met the herd leader, so he couldn't go asking him. Actually, speaking of which, he had never even seen the King of Thieves. Was he maybe away? Yes, the Chief must be away. Hopefully he would be back soon, and sort out this dilemma. Split the group in order to search for the thieves. That still didn't answer the problem if they didn't have any warriors at the moment. Maybe he should just leave it to the gods to sort out. Did they have any allies?

Argetlam scuffled his hooves, irritated by the confusion causing he was causing himself. Leave this to the actually important herd members. He was just an apprentice, even if he wanted to be a true mason one day. Unfortunately... Willow was gone. The Storyteller had been scarce for quite a while. Paladin was his name, right? Aaron. Yes, where was Aaron? He had to go find his mentor. Maybe he could bring up metal life as well when he was at it...

But first, he should probably talk to Delinne a bit more, just to be polite. "Uh, so, how have you been doing?"