C
A
T
H
U
N

He didn't care what the answer was. Not really, not to the point where the explanation - while annoying, as parts of it made no sense at all; how did pressure color a polar-bear? - annoyed him to the point of speaking up. Cathun had been ignored once, he was not so desperate for attention that he would risk facing those sharp, glistening teeth again. He waited with all the patience he could muster as the rest gave their answers and reasons, listened with gritted teeth as the wolf rolled her eyes at them. But when she gave a third riddle the colt had to bite down on a groan that inadvertently slipped past his guard, exasperated and unamused. He had better things to do than play games. While normally he might have been very amused and even enjoyed these riddles, the situation was such that the young equine wished it would all be over. The place was creepy, the wolf even more so, but worse still was the crowd of horses that actually gave a damn and answered in earnest, as if giving a correct answer was a matter of life and death.

To summarize; the entire thing was creeping him out.

To make matters worse, the symbols the wolf managed to produce with her bone chilling howl were not ones he was familiar with. For all that he could read, Cathun was only familiar with one alphabet and the one he knew had nothing in common with these doodles. For a few seconds he strained his mind trying to find meaning in the symbols, but after a while he snorted and gave up, completely disregarding the eerie glow. So what if he couldn't give a correct answer? So what if he couldn't give an answer at all? It wasn't as if they were competing, and even if they were there was nothing he wanted to win.

She wanted a long word? Fine, he'd come up with a really long one, and then he would leave no matter how many riddles she had left beneath those sheep-wool ears. Cathun closed his eyes, rummaged through the inner vocabulary and once a word came to him that seemed long enough he muttered it, just loud enough to be heard.

"Acknowledgment."

Then he waited, silently wishing that the fog would lift. At least then he would know where he was.

________________________________________

Answer: Acknowledgment

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