I felt like this was a conversation that I had with my dad in the past...

You know, it strikes me that not many stories, even furry ones, devote as much attention to horses as yours does. It's refreshing to see.

But back to the plot itself, and unsurprisingly my heart really was in my mouth when Ciara was shot at. Even if I knew she couldn't die there, I really didn't know whether she might at least be hit less seriously. I think a lot of writers -- probably including me -- would have tried to have made that an end-of-chapter cliff-hanger, but actually I think the way you did it worked better, keeping up the breakneck pace of that part of the tale.

I'm afraid I couldn't help grinning inwardly when I realised that Ciara was going to have a real go at Connor. As I said in an earlier chapter's comments, you really do write this sort of sparky dialogue entertainingly. And then I winced a little when Connor did the "you'll understand when you're a little older" bit. This does not strike me as having been a terribly good line to take with Ciara at this point...

(Really totally irrelevant, but I'm afraid I giggled at "Do you really think that's wise?" The reason being that it's a major catchphrase in one of my very favourite sitcoms, Dad's Army!)

I know. Horses do seem to get overlooked quite a bit. Even in fantasy stories where you have all kinds of room for magical horses or animals that are just uniquely trained they rarely get treated as more than just a form of transport. And as for furry stuff, horses don't seem to be nearly as popular as you'd think they would be. I'm not counting the recent glut of My Little Pony fan-art here, because that's a completely different kettle of fish. I've always liked horses, though, and I wanted to present Embarr more as Ciara's friend and companion than her pet. So I just ended up making him practically as important to the story as Ciara or Niamh.

I'm glad you thought that the scene with the arrow flying at Ciara worked. I debated on whether to make that a cliff-hanger but I thought that breaking off there would spoil the pacing, and it seemed a little bit trite. I thought it worked rather well the way I wrote it and I'm glad you agree.

I thought it was important to let Ciara show some real anger toward her father in this chapter. He's not a bad person, even if he isn't always that great at being a father. Neither of Ciara's parents make wonderful parents, really. But he's a bit more sheltered from any potential war than she is. He's a king, with a loyal retinue of bodyguards and a well fortified city to retreat to. She lives in a little place that could be wiped out before anybody else realized it, and she knows exactly how much danger her friends and loved ones are in. So I wanted to let that show. Again, I'm glad that you like the dialog between them. I was actually kind of pleased with it in this chapter, myself.

Thanks again for reading and all the comments! I really like reading what you have to say, and you always make such interesting points!