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The young filly finally caught up to them, and he felt a flicker of guilt for having pulled ahead with Brisa. There was no telling what lurked in these woods at night, something might see Vitani as the perfect snack. She looked to be fairing about as well as he was, but he'd had more time to grow and mature.
He wanted to ask if she was alright, but she seemed the type that would reject any sort of coddling. So he kept his mouth shut and sidled a bit closer to her to offer some of the heat coming off of him in waves of steam.
Vitani suddenly collided with his shoulder, and for a moment, he thought the shove was a negative reaction to his proximity. He turned to apologize, only to find that she wasn't even looking at him. Instead, she was looking to the dark forest before them.
The shadows parted around the form of a black unicorn with a bloody horn, trailed by a grizzly bear. She responded to Brisa saying her name like a demon answering a summoning. Ktulu struck an impressive figure, with her black and ivory coat, touched with strokes of gold. She stood inches taller than all of them, but even if she'd been the size of her grizzly, her presence was so commanding it wouldn't have mattered. She stepped into their clearing as if she owned it, surveying them with her unreadable scarlet eyes.
That heavy gaze fell upon him, like she was judging every inch of him. He couldn't afford to come up short. This is what he wanted, what he'd come here for. He wanted to take the final leap from spindly colt to a powerful stallion, and this was the horse that could get him there. If there was ever a time for his mouth to behave, this was it.
"My name is Ezital, I was hoping to learn from you."
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