So many questions, yet she couldn't reply to his single one? Lace might have missed her feeble attempt to reach out or the apology that was drowned out by the thunder and the rain, but he did not fail to notice how she, either by accident or quite on purpose failed to respond to his query regarding her whereabouts. Suppressing a desire to frown the stallion gazed at her with an impassive face, simply smiling mysteriously when she wondered at his statement; no, he could have told her. He was not ordinary, nor was he 'average'. How many other horses could tumble down a mountainside only to rise and walk away after only a short while of rest? How many horses carried fire in their blood, had their souls tied to the long-lived heart of a dragon, how many had ruled alongside a dragon and tasted the sweetness of its dark, soft rain-soaked skin? He was a king with a broken crown, he could have said and straightened up tall and regal, and she would have been safe should she have come to live under his rule...

But he stayed quiet.

Instead he clopped over to one of the support pillars and leaned a tree-marked shoulder against it, opting to peer out into the storm rather than focus too much on the girl. Her physique was exquisite indeed, but Lace felt too old to play with mares of her age. It was bad enough that Cirrus's face haunted his dreams, worse still to think what Mirage would say if she came back to find that her daughter had fallen prey to an old geezer... Best not tempt himself, lest he do something unforgivable.

"I stay there for the time being, yes" he responded absently when the mare in question - Dröm, she had said, he should try to remember it - inquired further about the Throat. "Though I wouldn't go so far as to say I live there. The Sultana is an old acquaintance of mine, and my friends daughter has chosen to take up residence there... Home is where the heart is they say, and mine is gone with the wind."

His smile looked quite bitter as he said it, this time very much lacking any humor to reduce its bite. There was a tiredness too in the gaze that didn't belong to such a youthful looking horse, lines around the eyes drawn by experience and pain. Yet when he threw a sideways glance at the dainty chestnut it vanished, replaced instead by a polite mask that offered very little insight into his soul or mind.

"Do you have family in these parts, Dröm?" he tried again, lazily curious as to whether she would choose to ignore his questions again.


@[Dröm] Sorry for the wait

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