He was pretty sure the other colt didn't like him, though he didn't know why. Something about the way the grey-eyed boy glared, sized him up like Zèklè might size up a patch of clover with mold on it- the way the unicorn seemed to wonder if he should eat the lightning boy, or if Zèklè wasn't even worth it. Spindly legs shifted, uncomfortable, but the stubborn boy refused to leave.

Besides, that was when Gaucho appeared, so now he had backup.

He looked at the stallion, and saw that he was being watched, and looked away, face burning- with what? He remembered fuzzy bits of his birth, being angry with the stallion (with good reason 'cus Ma was yelling and he was hungry and 'sides it's not like Gaucho did anything to be very nice), and then impressed at the meeting, and now he didn't know what to feel. This might be his Da, after all, this or the dancing prancing Bucephawhatever. Sunbeam eyes stole another glance at the massive stallion.

Gaucho'd be much more impressive to have as a Da, 'cept he didn't love Gaucho, not like he loved Ma.

"Ack!" A cry ripped itself from his lips, sudden and shrill and full of surprise, as a bird flung itself at him, and burst into flames, and then was okay. Wide eyes shifted between Gaucho and the others, the dark duo of siblings, and when he saw that the creepy boy was talking to the Sultan he settled, not unhappily, upon the filly by his side. "That was cool!" (at this point, the majority of his vocabulary consisted of this sentence. He'd become very good at nuanced inflection of the three words. Sometimes he'd shake it up- 'That's so cool!', or 'That was awesome!' But I digress.)

A crack distracted him, made him turn back to the taller boy, and then a smear of red caught his eye and then the greedy consumption of bones and flesh and then he felt a little bit nauseous, watching the incredibly ugly ball of fluff which he realized now must be an animal wolf down the creepy boy's kill. "Eww." Admiration met revulsion in the pit of his belly: he was impressed by the other's ability to slaughter, but also repulsed by it, unnerved, and hadn't Ma said companions were bad anyway? But then Gaucho had companions, and Ma had (maybe) had a baby with him, so was Gaucho bad and then did he have a bad Da and....

He shook his head and peered back to the giant, his maybe-father, things entirely too complicated for him now. Zèklè wished he could really meet Gaucho, instead of just see him at a distance, like this, through the lens of others. He also wished the girl would invite him to go off and play, because all the tension was starting to make him fidget, his wing flexing anxiously, his barren shoulder wriggling, his feet longing to move and his brain unwilling to leave, because wouldn't that be giving up, and wasn't he better than that? Besides, he did want to make a friend, as unlikely as that seemed right now.

Zèklè sighed. It was gonna be a long day.

---

TAG;; @[Gaucho]