It's an interesting thing, the taste of your own medicine. For all my lifetime, not that it has been an exceptionally long one, but even so I had yet to encounter another who drew. I had come across a mute a time or two, but most relied on exaggerated body language or a close friend. Either way I was still able to understand them in some fashion.

Yet as my gaze averted to Rei, brought there by her gentle touch that was a whisper across my skin, bark still tumbling around the insides of my mouth, I was perplexed as to what she was trying to communicate. My attention was definitely divided though, still attentive to where my nerves tingled in the absence of her muzzle. It had been a long time since I had felt anyone's kind touch. It should have startled me, but I was calmed, the moment brief, light, unassuming. Shaking my head I returned my full attention to her art.

For a moment I was concerned she was mocking me - I knew very well she could talk and yet here she was drawing pegasus. The thought dispersed as quickly as it came though; she seemed to kind for something like that. Then again I could hardly claim to know the mare, but her smiles felt to genuine, so I trusted in my judgement.

I took a step or two closer, ignoring Ghost for the time being as I tried to decipher the pictures. I understood the pegasus part quite clearly and figured it was her. What did the one joining the others mean though? Was it her family, her home? Was she going to get them, leaving me to go to them, or asking me to join them?

I glanced up, confusion written plainly on my facade, but she had already dashed off. So, she was leaving then. Nice of her to say as much, I supposed.

Slowly my gaze shifted towards the black and red mare, wary of her still, but comforted by the smile she had cracked before. We stood in awkward silence for a while, and in those quiet moments I wondered why she was here, why she stayed. Rei had been inviting, but Ghost didn't seem quite as enthusiastic about my skill, or conversation in general, be it words or ink. She seemed the loner type to me, socially estranged by years of solitary life, like myself. I should have found kinship in that, but I only felt an itching desire to return to it.

As I was preparing to tell her as much, Rei returned rather abruptly. Her presence surprised me, and quickly reminded me of her picture. If it didn't show her leaving after all, as was my first guess. Then, had she gone to get her family (or friends)? I glanced to the side, neck stretching out to look behind her as she deposited the berries, but I didn't notice anyone new. What then I wondered, annoyed at my own inability to comprehend my art form.

Vexed I tore at the offered berries, black tail flicking with a splash of ink. Half way through inhaling the little balls of crimson I realized she had shown herself leaving and returning to us. What's more, she brought these delicious gifts I was being rude about. Remembering my manners I lifted my head to proffer her a guilty smile. The red juice was cracked and smeared across my teeth, dribbling down my lips; I probably looked like a blood thirsty animal, if not for the awkward teenage horse attached to it.

I bobbed my head in turn to her explanation of the berries, thoroughly enjoying them. I'm not much of a wilderness man, so I made a habit of avoiding things that could be as easily poisonous as delicious.

Now came the hard part. My name.

Always with everyone wanting to name things. I can't deny them that need, even I feel it, though its faded with my inability to use it. I can't say I really even remember my own name any more, I've gotten so many nicknames over the years, which just seems to make actual names all that less important. If they didn't matter, not really, what was the point? Just words being diluted with emotions and memories.

I sighed heavily, purposefully, and rolled my shoulders in something like a shrug. In some half hearted attempt to explain I brought my tail around with a quick, wet slap. Ink sprung from its tips, spilling across the white canvas of winter in a useless pool. Ink was my name, but I wasn't even sure if that was my true name. I wasn't born this way, but near enough to name me after it, I suppose. I'd never know though, my parents long dead, their memories fading each year from my mind.

[Sorry continuing with lazy table and no new drawings ;-;]