Minette feels a small smile flit across her face as the jaguar spotted mare appears. It is the first genuine smile she's bestowed in awhile, and it feels strange. It has been a long time since she's had any reason to feel unfettered joy. Even the birth of her daughter brought mixed feelings. She remembers being a lighthearted child, and a playful, joyful mare. Those days feel farther away than the half a year she has spent with Gryffen. Minette is not the same. She feels much older than her four years.
The suspicious question takes her surprise, although it shouldn't. The pale gray mare knows she must reek of Gryffen. He's marked her carefully, making sure she is known as his and that she will never get away. Minette thinks she sees a black bird out of the corner of her eye, and she startles a bit.
"He wants nothing from you." Minette says, her voice weary and tinged with bitterness as she remembers all that Gryffen demands of her. Obedience. Submission. Children. He wants a plaything, and Minette was offered to him as if on a silver platter. "Not that I know of, anyways. But what I ask of you… he may desire something from you after this."
Her plea begins quiet, but steady. Her eyes shine with feeling, and desperation. This mare may be her only hope.
"I know little of this place. Every moment since I arrived has been a moment in Gryffen's keeping. Even now, I am not far from him, and he will not be happy when he finds I am gone."
Minette says this with calm acceptance. She knows she will suffer, and she will need every scrap of courage and strength to make it through the days ahead.
"You are an Amazon. I've heard it said you are a land of mares, and that you can help a mare in need. I ask nothing for myself. I will remain a captive," Minette pauses, bitter, before continuing with urgency. Time is moving too quickly. "But my daughter. She is newly born. Gryffen is her father. He will control her, shape her into someone beyond redeeming. Please. Can you take her and keep her safe? I beg of you. If you know Gryffen… you know there is danger, but I would do anything to keep Anguisette away from him."