"I am wolf." But how could that be? She shared most of their features, he couldn't deny that; she was wolf from the tip of her snout to the tip of her bushy tail, but at the same time, she was so different. She stood taller, with elongated legs, the fur on her neck more like a horse's mane than a wolf's scruff... How could she then say that she was wolf, and merely wolf? As if it was the same as being a different type of horse? He guessed it was, but they had different names for their different kinds - Mauja would never stoop so low as to say he was a mere horse. He was a unicorn, proud and passionate, currently King of a herd that was meant to rule the world and crush the lesser beneath his frosty hooves. Did she have a different name for her kind too, or were they simply wolves to her? Only one way to find out... "We have different names for our kinds," he told her in his smooth, quiet voice. "Would you call your own by another name?" Curiously, his head tilted to the side. Perhaps the mares were right - perhaps she was no threat. Few of the natural predators of Helovia hunted the horse kin, simply because they were so adept at fighting back. Some still tried, and it wasn't out of any hate, merely the laws laid down by nature itself. So why was he having a conversation with one of them?

To make it all the more interesting, she dropped her name and said she'd like to stick around. The world ground to a halt around him as he stared at her, emotions masked cleverly behind the impassive blue of his eyes. She - what? Wanted to stick around? Who was he to stop her, really? She was not of his hierarchy, not of his kin, not beholden to the rules and borders of horses - so why was it framed like a question? Or was it just a very vague statement?

And what did he feel about it?

Even as she assured them both she did not eat horses, he remained thoughtful, as if not having heard her. His eyes landed on Aylin - she was of the Foothills, that damnable mixed place, with an equine mother and an equine brother. He couldn't speak too openly in front of her, and he found himself wishing he could split reality in two. In one, he would be with Aylin, talking of the Moon and prancing through the forest. In the other, he'd be quizzing Arathea on.. things. But alas, he couldn't do such a thing, and instead he was stuck here with a child and a wolf, with no idea how to address the situation at hand. Part of him was thrilled about having a potential ally in the wolf, but the other part was worried - was he losing his direction? She was not a horse. Mauja did not shun bears and deer. But if she tossed herself into their game, into their politics.. Just what would happen? Would his moral as a racist require she be made a servant and a slave to their glorious species - something he doubted he could propose without getting a set of teeth in his hind end - or would she willingly aid them anyway? And what did he become, then? What would Ulrik say? What on earth was he going to do with her? If she truly meant to partake in his herd... it challenged so many things, posed so many question to which he did not know the answer.

"We are of different cultures, different ways, different worlds in a sense - I do not prevent wolves to roam through my forest, as long as they pose no threat to my herd. But I sense that that was not what you meant, Arathea..." He'd let her answer that one herself - hopefully, it'd buy him a few more moments to think and sort himself out.

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