Why was it so much harder to return to a cheerful mindset than to slip down into fear and unease? The filly curled her tail in appreciation of the kind words but couldn't really feel them do any difference. It was sad that she had seen horrible things at such a tender age, but she had neither the perspective nor the experience to understand that. It wasn't her age that was unfortunate to her, it was the whole fact that someone would go so far as to kill and defile someone just because they didn't agree. What bothered the child even more was that she couldn't quite bring herself to hate the swirl-marked god who had ordered it either... because even though she was young the girl was intelligent enough to understand that he wouldn't have done it if there had been another way. Or would he? What would have happened if the big, mad bear god had been left alive? Would he have done bad things, or would everything have worked out just fine?

Erthë didn't know. She didn't know that god, nor did she know the time man. Her eyes traveled to the Moon lady, a touch of doubt staining her admiration of the goddess... but as she regarded her it was as though the sheer beauty and elegance of the exalted being made her uncertainties melt away.

No, she wasn't sure, and she had no way of knowing what was right and wrong because no one had ever told her that. Even if what she did was a sin and a crime, at least she wasn't alone? The goddess was doing something, like the god before had done before, and she had been asked to help (at least that time). It was a comforting thought, if not altogether noble, and it helped the small girl settle down. Gradually she relaxed, and by the time she looked back at Rex the smile had returned to her eyes.

"Brave? What is brave? Why am I that but not you?" The tiny chiseled head tilted in query; it was a word she didn't know, a concept she didn't understood. At least the suggestion that this was no more than her mind playing tricks on her - like the shadows she thought crawled in the forest when she slept there with mom - was comforting...

If only her stomach could have believed it too. It kept fluttering and churning with warning and premonition, and the filly threw a glance around to see where mother had gone... ah, there she was. Glaring daggers and bristling as their eyes met, but grudgingly returning her bright, eager smile with a dark-lipped, surly one that spoke volumes of the telling off she would get once they were alone again.

At least the mare was there this time, which was more than she could have asked for.