Her expression softened as she listened to Rasta extoll the virtues of the Falls. She nodded, as if striking a tally in her mind. Instantly, she regretted the comparison.

She'd just wanted to see where she fit, but now there was an electric crackle of grief in her heart. How could she ever look at this kindness and find it in any way lacking? It was clear how much they loved their king and their herd. It was a rare gift to see such loyalty. She'd been rather unimpressed with some of the poor excuses she'd come along in the past. To her, a herd was not a patch of land where a few lived. It was... a family. Nothing less than the bond of sisters and brothers. A herdland could be walked away from, left to rot. But family? She'd been carrying her families with her since the beginning. And now she had to consider carrying these mares, too. She had to consider that she was agreeing to all the heartache and worry and weight of something as significant and essential as family. She tried not to wallow in the strange consciousness of this revelation, tried not to feel like her heart was floating but her stomach was full of rocks.

So instead, she addressed the golden mare's latter statement with a chuckle of good will. "Such benev'lence is downright novel these days," she sighed with a mock wistfulness, tossing her forelock dramatically. She let her accent drip like honey off the words where she usually reeled it in. "'Specially towards a visitor." I have always relied on the kindness of strangers, Miss. To counteract her nonchalance, the ensuing "thank you" was nothing but sincere.

As she followed the surefooted leader (gold, then silver, then copper), Cheska tried not to let her curiosity get the better of her. As in most of her endeavors, she failed utterly, and her sage green eyes couldn't dart around the Falls fast enough. Here was a beautiful pond, there a bright rainbow. And the food! It was everywhere. There were so many different shades of lush green that it left her teary-eyed. In the forest of her birth, food had to be dug from the ground, shoots carefully extracted from dirt and debris or picked from branches that hadn't grown high enough. The plains hadn’t been much kinder. Part of her just wanted to gorge herself until she either passed out or dropped dead right in the middle of their stunning oasis, but she got the distinct impression that such behavior would be frowned upon.

She turned her attention instead to the pair of companions roosting on their respective ladies. She took the opportunity to get a better look at Silas in particular, now that she judged him to be distracted enough not to eat her. "Sooo…" she addressed no one in particular, "does everyone here have a feathered friend? I have to be honest; I think I might have missed the boat on that one." So many curiosities, so little time to figure them out.

count] 513
tags] @[Rasta]
ooc]