She walks towards Ares and lets him sniff her.

Ares sniffs Lise's hand. Also, it was mostly just Ash that he didn't like.

She lightly pets him. " I think he likes me. "

"I think he trusts you." Isiea guesses. "You can pet him if you want, though we're kinda in a hurry so you should probably do that later."

He slightly nudges Lise's hand

" okay. " She pets him one last time, then gets behind Isiea.

She turns to Ash expectantly.

Ash gave a quiet word to follow, and the tatter-colt started after it, slipping into the woods as silently as a ghost.

They rode for a couple hours while the sky above them turned from pitch black to navy blue to the faintest tinge of pink. Puck kept well ahead of them, flitting from branch to branch until they caught up, then swooping away again. He led them deep into the swamps, through bogs where the tatter-colt and Ares sloshed through waist-deep pools of murky water, past huge, moss-covered trees dripping with vines. Ash said nothing as they traveled, but his head hung lower and lower the farther they went. Finally, as the last of the stars faded from the sky, the tatter-colt and Ares pushed their way through a cluster of vine-covered trees to find the raven perched atop a rustic-looking shack in the middle of the swamp.

Before the tatter-colt stopped moving, Ash was sliding off its back, crumpling to the misty ground. As soon as he was off, the tatter-colt began tossing its head and bucking. Snorting, the colt trotted into the bushes with its head held high and disappeared.

Once Ares stopped Lise got off and went over to Ash.

She hops off of Ares, pats him on the nose, then leans down to make sure Ash didn't just die.