"Not at all," Tarian tells the other stallion of his children. He might not have any of his own, but the sound of children racing through Loess did bring him joy. It was the sound of the future, ringing and echoing against the canyon walls. It was silence (though he enjoyed his solitude) that would be the death of a kingdom. If there was no hope for the future, there was no sense in protecting the present.
The children that Ledger and Lady Oceane had brought into the world could have a part to play in the future of Loess, and Tarian found himself hoping for that. Perhaps young Cheri might repay the favor that the Queen had bestowed upon her and take one of their children as a potential heir.
But it isn't for him to consider such policies. Tarian knows what he is, and that is a soldier. His mind needs to be on their borders and keeping them secure. It needs be focused on the other realms, to remain aware and vigilant to the outside threats of their world. He readjusts his silver wings and arches his neck, glancing at the flaxen-maned stallion. Tarian knows he shouldn't be brooding either; not when there are other things for him to accomplish.
"Your son is as he should be," Tarian tells him when the other horse mentions that the boy can be a handful. "How else can a child learn their place in the world if they don't rattle it a little?" He thinks of the skirmishes that he used to get into, of the fights that he had picked as an adolescent. It had earned him his place in the Liridon Guard and that path had eventually led him here, to Loess and Altissima.
And then he tentatively answers Ledger, "No." Not entirely a lie, because his children have not been born yet. But it isn't his place to reveal the secret that that his spotted mate carries. "What about the other one?" Tarian asks, moving the subject on to something else. "I've never quite got her name."
TARIAN
@Ledger