Annoyed. In the moments that followed while the dun forced himself to be silent and listen, a bubbling and heating vat of annoyance began to pool in the pit of his stomach. It churned and burned as it overflowed, rising up through his throat and stinging his tongue. He wanted to stamp his feet, to beat his wings and toss his head with each passing word that seemed utterly useless. Why did Gaucho fight? Why did things end in violence? Because words were nothing. Actions were everything. He wanted to throttle Ophelia. To call her a hypocrite who was simply good with words. His mind exploded with fury and frustration as Hotaru chimed in. So Ophelia hadn't been lead for long. That both made things better and worse. Better in the sense that, as the pink spy tried to communicate, not every evil that the Basin had conducted against the Throat was her doing. Fine. However, as leader now she inherited the problems and boons and slights of all of her predecessors. If she wanted to change the Basin, fine. But accusing Gaucho of being the one to start a war was simply false. Whether or not it had been under her guidance it had always been the Basin who threw the first stone. Why had it fallen to him to venture North? Why should he politely come a'calling when his herd was being threatened? He didn't understand it, and his ignorance only further fueled his anger. A grim smirk appeared on his lips as Hotaru mentioned that she wouldn't allow him to harm Ophelia. As if she could stand in his way. However as the thought resonated in his mind, suddenly he could feel his body becoming sympathetic to the idea, and invigorated by it. How he wanted to charge at Ophelia, to feel the points of his collar sink into her pristine white flesh, to add more red to her ensemble. To tear at her pretty mane, and to feel if she was both as soft and hard as she appeared. Gaucho wanted to throw her body against the ice and watch her slide. He wanted might to make right, and to force all of her pretty words back down her pretty throat. All he needed was to release the tension that was building within him, and being the creature he was, only a physical activity could release his energy.

Truly, he just wanted this rising action to reach a climax; at this point he didn't even care what it was. He came here wanted to resolve things. To understand what the attacks had been about but all he had received was excuses and both mares trying to shift the blame. Ophelia wasn't in charge, and You're the one who doesn't come North, and Why can't we take when we haven't been caught?

And so Gaucho stood, muscular shoulders twitching as he forced himself to remain still and stoic. He wouldn't attack either mare, as much as his primitive instincts told him to. Instead, with Mara's help, he would continue to try and understand the bastardized version of recent events they were trying to spin.

"No." He said finally, his voice more or less even. "When you ever come?" He returned, his voice accusatory as his blue gaze narrowed. "When your leaders ever come to talk to us? You say Soh reached out to you to join Academy. That US coming to YOU." He snorted, agitation creeping into his voice. Ophelia had come to the Throat a few times, that much he remembered, but clearly not in a position of authority in the Basin. He didn't even know who the leaders of the Basin were that's how much they apparently ventured out. He had not heard anything from them since the Invasion. In fact, the last time that he had heard of anything from the Basin had been during the Wraith attacks when he had let Basin unicorns join his WAR effort. "Gaucho start WAR effort in caves during wraith invasion. Gaucho work with Basin members then. After invasion nothing. Then you start stealing. You make first attack. Throat retaliate. Why I need to come to Basin and make terms? These the terms. You attack us, we attack back. Simple. But you make it sound like Gaucho did wrong. Like I start a war. Basin invade Throat seasons ago, you try to steal multiple times now. This first time we retaliate. You not leader then - fine." He said dismissively, shrugging his shoulders. He hadn't been the leader of the Throat then either. What had been done was already in the past. "But you leader of Basin now. I leader of Throat. You need terms? Fine. You attack us, we attack back. You try to steal, Gaucho will answer. This my family. I will always protect them. "

His voice had turned to fire, accompanied by that which burned along his wings as he spoke. Light blossomed in the icy passageway as he addressed the Basin Lady, finding his words failing to lend themselves to the meaning he was trying to communicate. Why was it his responsibility to ask for terms? If he wanted peace perhaps, but all he wanted when this started was justice. The way Ophelia was speaking now made the Wildfire think she should perfectly understand why he had taken Hotaru, as she herself seemed to. Hotaru had understood - it was fair. She had made a move against the Throat, and so the Throat had made a move against her. What was so villainous in that? Why was the Basin so privileged that they could attack with impunity and expect others to come to their doors begging, 'Oh please, please don't attack us anymore ? Why was Gaucho made the villain for retaliation when it was they who threw the first stone?! His tail lashed angrily around his hocks as he let these thoughts boil in his mind. Perhaps if he killed Ophelia here and now they could have a new more reasonable leader.

Before he could express this thought, a sparkle of ice that lined Phaedra's body caught his gaze. Turning softly towards the golden mare, the Wildfire sighed. All of this was done for the sake of his family. All of it. The reason he had taken Hotaru, the reason he was here now to collect Phaedra and Stella, and even the reason that he was speaking with Ophelia. While the thought of murdering her here amongst the ice was mostly just a gruesome fantasy, he realized what a shockwave it would cause. Perhaps the Throat could triumph over the Basin in combat, he really wasn't sure. But all of the lives it would take to win ... Suddenly he remembered the bodies that lined the Throat during the last Invasion. It both strengthened his resolve and pacified his anger.

Family was most important.

Rhojosor rayan.

His gaze moved from Phaedra to Ophelia as he tried to think. This sort of strategy ... this weak form of manipulation if it could be called that, was not what Gaucho was good at. Fighting, that's what he was here for. (Soh, where are you?). Mara hissed weakly, nuzzling Gaucho's skull from her place in his mane away from the cold. Tell her what ssssshe wantsssss. Peacccceee. Tell herrrrr. Mara knew that it would mean Gaucho would be the one to give, although seemingly that was what Ophelia wanted. To accept none of the blame for her newly acquired herd and to be in charge. She wanted to hold all of the cards. Gaucho tensed immediately at the thought. He didn't want to - he wanted to make Ophelia admit her wrongs, to apologize and agree to leave his family alone if only for his show of strength. Was it pride that fostered this feeling? Perhaps. But in his mind he felt entitled to it.

But what was more important? His entitlement? Or his family?

Family. It would always be his family.

Looking to Hotaru, Gaucho's nostrils flared causing the bone that lined the dark skin to twitch. He hoped that she was right and that Ophelia wanted to make a change. What would happen next would likely decide all of their fates for a while to come.

Steely blues sought to find Ophelia's bi-coloured gaze. His emotions had wavered considerably, although now he was relatively calm. His priorities were in order now. Besides, if Ophelia turned him down impaling her with is antlers was still an option.

"Okay." He began again rather softly, licking his lips slightly to wet them after his moments of silence. "Terms. Gaucho want peace. Gaucho asking for peace. Basin and Throat not need to be allies, but need more than neutral. You not steal from Throat, not attack Throat. Throat not steal from you, not attack you. You need from us, you ask. If we can help, we help. That terms Gaucho want." The dun assumed that the Basin would not want to be their ally.
"Be civil. He continued, borrowing the word from Mara's vocabulary.

There. He had been the one to give. To take the high road. It was what he thought Ophelia wanted.

But would it be enough?