He settles himself between the two mares with an air of confidence that probably comes across as arrogance and haughtiness. The confidence is all a lie, of course; he has never done this before (tried to ‘recruit’ a mare to his currently non-existent herd, not speak to mares in general - though sometimes others do wonder), and he’s just trying to model himself on the ideal stallion candidate. He’s probably an unlikely knight in shining armour, but it’s important to act like he’s trying.
He smiles as Caraway introduces herself, and the smile only grows as she questions him. Clearly, she has never met any particularly nasty or forceful stallions. Which is good, for her, because they really aren’t great; too busy bossing everyone about but not enough brains to hold a proper conversation, in Kilian’s experience.
But then, most of the horses in the Field today are female. And Kilian knows that mares - if they want something - can be just as forceful and nasty as the stallions. Perhaps herd life is slowly dying out and the kingdoms are taking over. Recruiting seems to be a very competitive business.
“If it’s a quieter, less driven life you’re after, then maybe you’d be interested in my herd,” he starts, not adding “that doesn’t yet exist” onto the end of it. He doesn’t want to scare her off too quickly. She seems a nice sort, this Caraway, and he would like to have her wandering around his home with him. Maybe she doesn’t want to live somewhere noisy and bustling with people. She probably doesn’t want to live somewhere with only one other horse for company, but he can work on that.
And anyway, she can always make friends outside the herd, and then maybe bring them back, so that Kilian looks like he’s a really powerful stallion but actually his mares did all the recruiting.
He’d probably end up getting kicked out and the mares would take over his land, but maybe that could be exciting. Mutiny and all that.
He tries to stop daydreaming and focus on this actual, real life situation that is happening before him. |
