Uhhhh so things just seem to always escalate quickly in the Threshold?? If it’s not me getting my hip licked by the stranger it’s a cat trying to eat my griffin and then watching this behemoth get angry at said cat. Honestly, at first I thought he was yelling at me which almost caused me to leave little peppermint patties all over the ground out of fear. And THEN I was afraid he was going to kill the kitty as he rolled her onto her back and yelled at her. Like bro, she shouldn’t have done that but you don’t need to kill her!! But while he was dealing with his companion I needed to deal with mine. Jellybean was still screaming and I turned to nudge her and try to get her to stop hovering in the air like that (cause she’s not going to be able to keep doing it for long anyway) and crawl back onto my back.

Finally she does but I can feel her shaking as she does, clinging to my mane with her bird feet as she tries to
sploot along my neck the way she used to do when she was really tiny. It’s a little more difficult now but she’s small enough that she can still manage to sit comfortably as she settles in. Her pink-lined wings are stretched out against my red mane on each side and it feels like she’s hugging me as she buries her little parrot face in my neck.

This seems like a pretty good point to call it quits on the conversation BUT I’m kept in. Furry-face finishes dealing with the bad kitty and

“Oh that’s alright.” What else are you supposed to say when someone apologizes even though it wasn’t actually alright? “Thanks for stopping her.” I glance down at the cat-thing warily but my attention is drawn once more to Beowulf, as he introduced himself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Beowulf!” WAS IT?! Well kind of, he seemed nice enough anyway, murderous companion aside. And I was super impressed with him now that we’re standing near to each other. Like, this guy is a great hairy unicorn and I’m wondering like ‘???? why wasn’t I born looking like this????’ Fate can be so cruel.

But turns out Wulfman’s not cruel! He was even reaching out to greet the griffin and though Jellybean shied away and yelped a little bit she didn’t scream which I think counts as a win, accepting the proximity of this stranger. “This is Jellybean, my companion. She’s just a little scared but she’s okay.” I feel like I’m talking like an adult and that’s gross but I’m still processing the events that just happened within a very short period of time.

But like, now what do we talk about? It doesn’t seem polite to bring up Mykah even though she’s kinda cute now that she’s not leaping at Jellybean and I don’t know if I should repeat my question offering help. Good gumdrops this Threshold business was complicated.

“So, uh, you guys from around here?”