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It was all a big game, a play of chess where only the flexibility of minds had been tested - and very fleetingly at that. Cathun frowned in disgruntled surprise when the white mare, Lady Ophelia, first cracked down on his strategy and then announced that the trial was over. Was that it? No spars, no physical trials, no further delving into the marshland that was strategy, tactics and moral? One quick game of whack-a-mole and she had already decided?

The young stallion stared at the red-tainted mare through narrowed slits as he joined up with the rest once more, disbelieving and suspicious. The whole affair was suspicious, it left a bad taste on the tongue. Why was the conquerors allowed to pick the leaders of the abandoned region? Why were these two mares the only ones allowed to voice their opinion? Where was the voice of the people, those poor souls that would have to live with the consequences of whatever result they chose to make? His participation in the whole affair was haphazard and spontaneous, a whim, a... yes, a game! He didn't know himself how he would act if he ended up on a throne, and what was to say that the rest of the applicants felt any stronger about it? A land you didn't know, a people you hadn't met... they all faded to the background compared to the blinding halo of glory that surrounded the titles of 'king' and 'queen'. Cathun was still young enough to view royalty with the eyes of a child, awed and desperate for a measure of the same heroic status that surely came with such a high seat. Oh, he wanted it, wanted it badly enough to glare at the warrior candidates he had played with, so much so that he remained more focused on Kahlua and Ophelia than on Amaris once the diplomats returned...

The problem was how little he was needed as a ruler of a foreign land, and how quickly his interest dropped once names were called and his weren't among them. Cathun held his breath at first and felt the searing heat of disappointment wash over him, swallowed back tears of shame and humiliation at the thought that he had been deemed lesser than someone else. He closed his eyes and listened to the hard drumming of his own heart as he struggled to maintain some sort of composure - he'd drop dead before crying in front of all these people - and forgot to congratulate the winners, forgot to pay his respects to the new Kings, forgot even that he hadn't really been interested in wearing a crown to begin with...

Then, quite suddenly, disappointment turned into anger and his eyes snapped open, moving from equine to unicorn to pegasus, sharp and cutting, seeing what he wished to see rather than the truth. He saw Mauja and Kahlua stand pressed together, close enough that they could be confused for one and in his eyes they were sharing tender looks, sweet and full of meaning. He turned and found Torleik whispering with Ophelia, and to his judgmental eyes a tender look appeared to plaster upon the dark features, sickening in its tender affection and he thought he remembered how they had always stood close to the other, sharing glances as though some quiet conversation was being held without words.

One after another was subjected to the sharp, burning glare - Cathun jumped a bit when he discovered that Ampere was there, and for a moment he wondered how much trouble he would be in when he got back to the Throat - and as he watched the colt bit his jaws tighter together. Regardless of whether his eyes found truth or figments of his own vivid imagination, Cathun allowed the bitterness to overcome him, and without thinking about consequence or anyone's feelings (who mattered except himself anyway?) he spoke up, words acrid upon the sharp tongue.

"I see" he said, so quiet that only those standing closest to him might hear. "So this is how Aurora Basin and the new Hidden Falls do things.

Say," he called, raising his voice and calling for the attention of the executives, every word laced with sarcasm, "was there any point in this at all? If you were going to pick your lovers to lead this place then why didn't you just do so from the start, instead of hosting this farce of a trial? Call me biased or a sore loser if you want, but I don't think anyone here will call this a fair ruling."

The colt's ears had tipped backwards as he spoke and there was a new hardness over his young face as he glared between Mauja, Torleik and their ladies. Funny how people could turn from innocent strangers into malevolent enemies at the drop of a hat. Funny, indeed, how a person could judge others based on nothing but misguided preconceptions, simply because they wanted to judge.

"I'm starting to feel relieved that I wasn't chosen. I'd much rather become the naive, arrogant fool you take me for and live my life with honor and integrity, than curry favors from herds that can't even be honest about their own high-handed self-righteousness. "

Lips curled in disgust as Cathun offered a mock bow to the new lords and with a flick of the frosted tail he turned to leave, falling in behind Ampere to accompany her back to the Throat, spine rigid with indignation.

This was not over. Far from it. Cathun may be weak now, he may be young and inexperienced... but that would only last so long. He would have to train, grow stronger, he would challenge Gaucho again and test his mettle against Ampere, and one day when he could no longer be looked down upon he would change this wretched world for the better! Arrogant, ha! Naive, ha! He would show them, show them all for sure! And in the meantime they better watch their backs, because Cathun had now seen how some of the rulers of Helovia truly acted and he agreed with none of it.