Själ

Själ remembered the first time she had seen her griffin. She had been carrying around the egg for weeks, waiting, watching, praying for it to hatch. It had been the dead of winter and bitterly cold, and she had worried that she had been too late to save the orb from its icy demise. But it had called to her, that day on the ice, and she had known that it would need her (though Ansgar might argue that it was Själ that needed her), and so she had harbored it in a makeshift sling, snuggled against her breast to weather the blizzard that came after. And then, after weeks of waiting, the fledgling griffin had hatched.

Ansgar had been fierce from the beginning - ever silent, ever glaring. Her bond with the unicorn princess had been strong from within her egg, and from the moment she rolled from the orb into the world, it had grown only stronger. Now, she knew the girl nearly as well as she knew herself. Själ's embrace was all she had ever known, and as she had grown older, she had begun to harbor a deep adoration of and loyalty to the girl that had saved her. She had seen the memories play in the girl's mind, knew what peril she had escaped at the hooves of her bonded. She loved the girl, and the girl loved her, and for months now, they had only had each other to depend on.

It had become easy, their relationship, one where half a thought conveyed an hour's worth of communication. The princess, young as she was, cherished it; it was a bond that she hadn't shared with anyone else in her short life, not even her mother. Forever lonely and estranged, it was Ansgar that she valued most highly of all. Still, when she had first seen the little cat-bird, she had hardly known what to think. And that was the look on the little pegasus's face as she exploded into smoke, taking on a ghost-like appearance for a moment. The princess cocked her head to the side, curious and impressed in spite of herself. What manner of creature had she stumbled across? Was the girl a spirit, alone in death? Was she an inhabitant of the bloodied waters here, there to warn travelers away?

The filly raised an eyebrow at the girl's tone. If she was a spirit, she certainly didn't appear to be a friendly one. "I suppose even a pup is better than nothing," she conceded hesitantly, eying the little black wolf with a vague hint of derision. "I'm just passing through. I was on my way..." she trailed off, frowning. On her way where, exactly? She had meant to come back to Helovia, and she had done that - but the second part of her plan, finding a home... well, that wasn't so easy. "I am returning to Helovia. I don't know exactly where I'm going now that I'm here, though. Who are you?"

"Speech."