The sound of a disturbance in the wind turns his eyes towards her, who fills him with the most trepidation and awe he has felt since he first encountered Semira all those years ago. She is a blaze of colors, as if a rainbow had fallen on her during her birth and stained her only the brightest and most vibrant of its hues, and he cannot help but gawk awkwardly at her because she is both beautiful and horribly strange to him; her legs are streaked with white, the colors plunging into the pristine ivory that wrap about her face and wings as well, and he cannot help but feel ordinary in the face of such a thing.

He is the color of the earth, the rich brown of soil and the deep shades of charcoal, rimmed by clouds. She is a prism of color and splendor, and for a moment, he does not move at all, ponders stepping away from her.

And then she speaks. Well, shouts almost at him, the sternness in her voice planting his massive frame quite squarely where it is, easily intimidated by the smaller mare in his timid and unsure nature. She stretches out her wing as she bullishly mentions a series of words that make his eyes broaden in bewilderment before he realizes she means wing feathers. Slowly, he bobs his head up and down in agreement, not knowing for sure that that is where the feathers had come off of Ranjiri’s wing (she had been missing many) but not wanting to go too far into details with such a vibrant and stern woman. He’d only stammer and stutter and make her genuinely shout at him.

Blessedly, he hears the arrival of another around him, at first feeling more panic eek into his pores until he smells the familiar scent of sand and golden feathers, turning his head ever so slowly to look upon Ranjiri. His confidence suddenly floods him again in the presence of a friend, one who he figures won’t let things escalate to a point of panic as they had that long ago afternoon in the willow grove, and he smiles humorously at the notion that she has, quite ironically, arrived into the situation anyway.

He was spared a walk to the Throat in exchange for a near heart attack here and now – splendid.

"Ranjiri!" he calls to her as she says her greetings, shuffling towards her nervously as he looks over at the colorful mare and smiles wryly and in apology for his ridiculousness (even he knows he looks like a cowardly giant at this point), "I was just meeting, erm… well her. She was admiring the bauble I made from your gift." He smiles at the black and gold mare quite happily before returning his eyes to the colorful woman to answer her question. "I use magic to create the glass. The feather was Ranjiri’s," he explains before a short and sharp inhalation of breath takes his words, blue eyes striking over to Ranjiri in memory of his gift for her, "oh! I made you something, too."

He turns his frame around ever so slightly and swishes his tail at Ranjiri to draw her attention to the beads that sing jovially as they slip upwards and back down in the motion, striking each other and gleaming in the faint light allowed from the overhead branches. "I used the rubies from that pool there to color them. Normally I’m not so far south of the Edge." He tries to make the last statement open ended for both the women, but he’s much more comfortable talking to sweet Ranjiri than the pretty-but-scary lady who had dropped from the skies. Its not that he doesn’t understand that some people aren’t as tactful as others, but he can’t take too many risks, not ever since what had happened to Shadow and the display of rage he’d felt after Azarel had intruded on his serenity back at the wall.

@[Bellona]