Great, More Distractions - Private

Delvin grumbled again; it wasn't his place to invite strange horses into herd territory, but they were on borrowed land anyway. "Aye, that should be fine," he rumbled, "As long as you don't cause trouble, even the guards shouldn't give you a problem if they catch ya'."

He didn't know what dealings the mare had gotten herself into, and he didn't much care to find out. He was even more annoyed he'd taken the time to chase her now; dummy should've just told him this from the start, before he ran through the woods and a field.

Delvin had just settled into the comfortable limbo stage between consciousness and sleep when a sharp scream pierced through the air, and more importantly, his skull. His head shot up and he quickly swiveled his ears, muttering curses as he looked for the cause of the disturbance, until he remembered the loner mare he'd brought back. He continued to mutter to himself as he turned a tentative glance to the herd. Miraculously, if anyone had heard the scream, no one seemed bothered by it. He sighed and stomped over to the loner, who appeared to be melting into a squeaky puddle in the grass.

"Oi, mare," he said, craning his head down to sniff at her. She didn't seem injured or anything, so it must've been a nightmare. A convincing one at that; there's no way she'd be faking a reaction like this. "Must've been a right-bad one, eh?" he asked quietly.

"No, no, no," he argued, following after the forlorn mare. Now that he was more fully awake, he took a squinty look at the moon, "Now, it won't be dawn for a few hours yet, what else do you have to do at this time o' night besides sleep, hmm?" he questioned, plodding after her across the meadow. The moonlight made it easy enough to see her outline making its way towards the woods he found her in.

"No one even heard you," he continued, "And I can't leave a little thing like you wanderin' about on the Bachelor's land." Especially if she was whimpering and fussing in the woods. The brutes would be drawn to that like moths to a flame.

Delvin sighed and gave his mane a shake in an effort to stay alert. "Well, ya' don't have to sleep," he said, "Just rest. It's not good to go for days and nights without a bit of proper rest," he lectured. After a moment, he added, "Every horse has somethin' fightin' to keep 'em up at night, you just have to keep the past in the past, and not let it eat at you now, in the present."

Delvin settled into his circle of tramped-down grass and rested his chin on the ground. Judging by the placement of the moon, there were only a few more hours of darkness left, but he supposed that would be enough. He could nap tomorrow if he wanted, anyway. The whole herd was basically in limbo, waiting for something to happen. Delvin wasn't all that eager for that certain something to happen, because he knew it was bound to be bad when it did. The Bachelors would try to take more of their herd, and patience was already wearing thin with a good portion of the herd. He almost wished he'd tried to leave with one of the small bands who decided to take their chances alone, but then again, he didn't think that would suit him.

Eventually sleep crept far enough into his mind to silence his musings about herd affairs, and everything went dark. The sun was just beginning to crest the horizon when Delvin's eyes slipped open again, and he let out a customary irritated sigh at nothing in particular. He sat up and looked around. Some guards were up and about, as well as a few herd members. Delvin suddenly remembered the reason he didn't get much sleep last night, and peered towards the fields surrounding the camp. It didn't take him long to spot her; she must've settled closer at some point last night. She looked like she was still asleep, though, and Delvin decided he wasn't going to wake her. She seemed pretty anxious last night, so might as well let her rest as long as she could. 

Delvin meandered amongst the other horses who had woken up already, and munched on patches of grass here and there. After a bit he set his attention back to where he'd last seen that loner mare, but after a moment of roving the grassy hill with narrowed eyes, he realized she was gone. She probably hadn't gone far though. He hadn't been up that long, and he didn't think she'd sprint off after just waking up. He swished his tail as he debated looking around the immediate area for her. If she wanted to get away, she would, but he decided to at least poke around and see if she was still nearby. 

He set off up the slight incline of the hill, towards the treeline. He figured if she was lurking, she'd be lurking there. 

Delvin sighed, as if the act of grazing was some task, but agreed nonetheless. As he bent his head to nip at the grass, he shot a look at the loner. She didn't look nearly as terrible as she did last night, so that was probably a good thing. She was probably getting ready to take off, seeing that she was already making her way towards the woods when he found her. He paused in his grazing to ask, "So, where are you headed now?"