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"My wings could not carry me far enough to find that stallion," replied Hialeah. She wouldn't unleash the danger that was Elaenyra on any unsuspecting soquili. No free flying bat liked to see another creature bound, but it was either that or slay the deranged soquili.

What neither the bat nor Elaenyra realized was that there was a stranger nearby. Proserpina was almost invisible in the darkness. Only her eyes were visible in the shadows, many red glintings watching the pair. Proserpina was content to just eavesdrop for some time, but eventually grew bored of that. The strong protector of the strange soquili that lived in this area was nowhere to be seen. There was nothing stopping Proserpina from walking right out in the open, and that's exactly what she did.

"Hello there," she murmured. She was careful to stay out of the reach of the chains. The mare might be able to do some damage if she was let loose. "I never thought I'd see a soquili chained up by a fellow soquili. I had thought it was only humans who played that game." Proserpina eyed the other mare disdainfully. Anyone who was able to be caught deserved to be.

Unimpressed, Proserpina gave a low chuckle at that display. "What makes you think I'm going to hurt you?" she asked. She took a step closer, but still was far outside of the other mare's reach. "I just wanted to have a look at what sort of animal was penned here."

She spat out the word "animal" like it was a curse. It was meant to offend and there would be no missing that. She would expect nothing else, even if it was her chained up there. Soquili were not bound. Horses were bound, their dumb and unfeeling cousins. Proserpina was filled with disdain to see one of her kind in this manner.

"A princess?" What a ridiculous assertion. "You aren't in your homeland, my pet." She smirked, as if she had just told a particularly funny joke. "Here, you're nothing." What sort of princess would be kept in chains? Proserpina personally thought the mare was just delusional. She was obviously not right mentally. Physically...

Proserpina gave her another look over. She couldn't see any features that looked very much like royalty. The mare had angeni features, which was something. If she had been pure angeni then Pros might have believed it, but not with the kalona horns and tail. The morbid markings also didn't seem terribly royal. "If you are a princess, then I'm a rabbit," she added derisively. There weren't many soquili that would look less like a princess than that mare.

Proserpina followed the frightened mare. She followed to within the range of the chains, perhaps a bad idea. The other mare was larger than she was and definitely had the weight advantage. Proserpina wasn't worried. She was fast and had a set of teeth on her that would make a skinwalker jealous.

"Strange, you're the one acting like a rabbit right now," she purred. "Your fear smells a little like one too." Even though she was currently occupied by teasing the mare, Proserpina didn't let down her guard. The bat had gone off for help. She wanted to be able to disappear again as soon as any reinforcements arrived. Getting caught by an angry herd wasn't on her to-do list for that night.

Was the mare mad? She snapped at the bats like a creature possessed, and Proserpina knew a thing or two about possessed things. Briefly, she wondered if the mare was ill. She knew of some diseases that could cause animals to lose their senses. Proserpina had seen it in raccoons a few times, once even in a squirrel. The squirrel had shrieked and attacked her, a monster a hundred times its size. Maybe this one was infected with a similar disease of the mind. Or maybe she had just hit her head.

Wondering about illness did have an affect on Proserpina. She backed away from the mare slightly, making sure that she was out of reach. She didn't want an infectious bite to make her just as daft as the mare was. "Are you talking to me, or are you talking to the bats?" she asked, taunting. "I don't know if you realized this, but most bats don't have the power of tongues. They don't understand you."

There was definitely something off here. Proserpina's upper lip drew back with distaste. "Are you sure that you want me to leave?" she asked. "If I did, you might go back to chasing bats." So that was why she was chained up. Someone had the right idea when dealing with that one. Maybe it was a human. Few others were nimble enough to work chains like that.

"Even if I did leave..." Proserpina drew away and slipped into a shadow. She seemed to merge with it almost entirely, making her invisible but for gleaming eyes. "How could you ever be certain that I was really gone?"