Her best case scenario was that the children had gotten bored and decided to test their strength and swim to one of the border isles. One of these stallion's homes. That they had made it, but were tired yet from the long swim and stranded but safe on one of those shores. If that were ruled out, then there were more tragic possibilities, ones she hoped wouldn't need entertaining.
Her hardened as a new face joined them. As with Ivar, she knew him by reputation first, though his was far less gruesome than the painted stallion's. She had never met him though. Knew only that he and his kin occupied one of her isles, and that he had fathered a son on her sister. Her nod of greeting was a curt one, but better than the salty words she considered. He had shown, even late. She grimaced. Perhaps his isle was treated more as a convenient summer home.
The pearl mare decided that later, when emotions were not running so high, she would seek him out for a chat. It was unfortunate timing that this was her first real meeting with the island's tenants, and she would rather know them properly in the future. Aodhán, the only one of the trio that she'd had any kind of pre-existing relationship with seemed to support Brennen's suggestion of their search.
She met the bay stallion's gaze as the morpheus Aodhán took on a more marine form, much to her relief. "If I have enemies, they have severely misunderstood who they're playing with." The normally sparkling depths of her eyes had flattened with single minded certainty. If this was not an accident, or two foolish foals simply wandering. If someone had actually dared to take her children. There would be no forgiveness, and there would be no mercy.
A scowl of equal ferocity turned her gentle features into something warlike as Ivar made his excuses. "I don't remember asking permission, sunfish." Her words flowed soft and warning. "My children are missing. If your herd is full of mothers, then I can't believe they would object to my searching for my own foals. I will trust my own eyes before any magic, and," she paused to glance at the other two standing on the shore. "If it's all the same to you gentlemen, I think I'd rather we begin with Kelpie."
The gall of him. The sheer, stupid nerve. If he thought to stand between her and any chance of finding her children, he would find himself soon mistaken. And if his blathering had delayed them in any way long enough that her children were less than whole when she found them, he would face that consequence.
@[Brennen]