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He'd already grown used to being stared at, or maybe he was still just too young to realize what it meant, the judgment behind their eyes when they looked at the place where another wing should be. When Breccan stared at Zèklè, Zèklè just stared back, grinning, tail twitching eagerly, a challenge in the vibrant sunbeam eyes. Betcha I can look at you longer. Betcha you'll back down.

The tip of his pink tongue crept outside of inky lips, clenched between pale teeth as he focused on not messing up.

He nearly crowed his triumph when the other boy looked away. Zèklè was the best at staring contests- just ask Ma! But the other colt didn't even really seem to care, or maybe he was just really good at brushing off defeat, and Ma had told him not to gloat. He shifted, shaking out his lonely wing, and followed the other colt's attention over to the filly. Dancing? Wasn't that like the stupid slow thing they'd seen Buce doing that one time in the Desert? But what the girl was doing didn't look boring, it looked fun.

Maybe she would teach him, and then he could go show Buce what real dancing looked like, and Ma would think he was so much better than the stupid Chancellor, because he was.

"Cool!" the boy cried, much louder than the girl, nearly leaping with his happiness, his pleasure at being surrounded by new friends. "I kno a st'lion who dances, bu' you did it much bet'r." He nodded seriously, mohawk mane bouncing as his head flailed dramatically. Some part of him wanted desperately to impress this girl, to make her smile at him the way Ma did sometimes and tell him he was great.

But he didn't wanna steal her, that was for sure.

He balked, surprised, as she suddenly turned hostile, demanding to know what they wanted, if they were there to steal her. Uh, no. Why, did the other colt want to? Zèklè turned to stare, surprise and confusion bright on his young face, but the other kid seemed just as taken aback as him. "Yea!" the half-boy piped in, turning back to the girl. "An' 'm Zèklè! We're jus' lookin' f'r stuff! Like I was tryin'a find th' story mare so I could tell Ma a story!" He'd almost forgotten that in all the excitement, but now he looked around for her again, as though expecting her to leap into the Rotunda and confirm his tale.

The boy sat silent for a long minute, thinking his brow slightly furrowed. Well, now that he'd found friends what was he to do with them?

Then he got an idea, and his eyes lit up, and he jumped in his excitement, grinning. "Hey, I'v an idea! Le's play hide'n'seek!"