She instructs me on how to say her name properly, and I file it away for the future. But the conversation quickly turns to the Gods, and I listen carefully. "I thought a similar thing, to be honest. I respect our Gods and it feels churlish to question them, yet I think this situation could probably have been solved with a lot less bloodshed." I don't know what happened in the Rift, of course, and indeed the Rift Gods made the first move to break through and wreak havoc. However, had our own Gods not gone into the Rift in the first place, perhaps none of this would have happened. Perhaps Shadow would still be alive. We wouldn't have these new lands, but what is a piece of turf in comparison to a life?

Nephele tells me that she was born here, but left and then returned. I smile, remembering my own former foray into Helovia's Threshold. I'd been a newly free man, hungering for the comfort of my human home, trapped in the rain and elements and the creature comforts I'd always been accustomed to. My naiive, immature mind hadn't been ready for what greeted me - horns, wings, hybrids, fear and magic and horror. Little wonder I'd turned and fled back out into the wild. I hadn't been ready to face Helovia, but now it feels like home. I've grown in ways I never thought possible, and the memories bring a smile to my haltered face.

"Aye, it has something intriguing about it, doesn't it?" I look around at this magic place, which just about sums up Helovia. Then the pegasus proceeds to ask about me, and I shift sheepishly. "I don't know if you've ever heard of a species called humans? They're glorified monkeys, basically. I grew up with them, owned by them. A fire in my home made me leave, however, which brought me here." I decide to leave out the part where I came in once, fled screaming to the hills, then returned again a year later after another natural disaster destroyed my second human home. She remarks that I look rather different, and I wiggle my eyebrows at her. "Because I'm fat and lacking certain bits of anatomy?" I'm deadpan for a moment, then let my features lapse into a warm smile. "Just kidding. Yes, I'm not a native. Where I'm from, there's no such thing as horned, winged horses, or magic, or companions. As you can imagine, coming into Helovia was a bit of a shock to the system." To put it mildly.