Redtail Rise I do what I want when I feel like it

Had Arion helped with the leading pairs before? Had he helped them when there were no advantages to it? If he had, he did not remember it at all. But nevermind that, that didn't really matter. Because surely they didn't expect him to keep helping them when there were clearly no benefits to doing so, surely they knew him better than that. They seemed to have another image of him in their minds, they seemed to have made him into someone he was not: another one of their normal subordinates. Arion didn't follow them blindingly, he didn't do anything simply because he was loyal. Sure, he was loyal, and he loved them all, but that wasn't the point. The point was, none of that mattered to him in the end. Loyalty, love, trust...none of that mattered. In the end, he weighed his options and chose the side that benefited him the most. In the end, he was his own man.

At least, that was what he thought. In reality? Even the chocolate stallion didn't know, though he did try to force himself to believe what he thought himself to be: a calculating wolf that was always on the side that benefited him the most. A wolf that was his own man through and through.

Arion blinked, taking himself back to reality as Saena replied curtly. Saying that she would make sure everyone gets to safety while he could sit here on his ass. What? What had he done to get her pissed off and annoyed? Did he say something wrong? He had only been stating his thoughts, just as he always had. What was wrong with her. Arion opened his mouth then closed it, deciding not to voice his no doubt insensitive thoughts and make this worse. But honestly, the stallion didn't understand how her brain worked. He hadn't even said anything particularly bad. Gods, he would never understand wolf nature.

Saena's next words made Arion even more confused. He blinked, straightened himself and turned to look at her, golden eyes inscrutable and revealing none of his confusion or thoughts. What was his problem? What was her fucking problem? He had no problem. He had been exactly how he was, he was still the Arion at the founding of Redtail Rise. He hadn't changed, he didn't have problems. She and Reek had, they had acquired some kind of problem, not him.

"I don't have a problem," Arion stated, allowing some of his confusion to show through his tone. "Perhaps it's the lack of Poppy," the stallion lifted a shoulder in a shrug. Maybe poppy was the problem, after all, it kind of acted like a sedative to the eccentric warrior and now that he couldn't have it... "Or maybe I didn't have enough time to blow off steam," his nonexistent brows creased in a frown for a moment, before vanishing into his normal stoic look once more.