It was a lone, colourful bird sitting apart from his kin that attracted her whole attention, pulling her clear at last from the warbling conversation she could not understand - it seemed not to require her involvement much anyway. The tiny creature wore a burning red cloak atop her breast of drab-grey. Beady black eyes, nestled against a rich, auburn feather-mask, glinted and shone in the golden sunlight as it fell in lazy shafts through the patchy canopy above. She was not as lovely as the ostentatious males who flirted in the branches around her; they flicked long, forked tails, fluttered and fanned dazzling metallic-black wings; though she seemed, to their loud discontent, not fancy their show. Theirs was a world Hildegunn scarcely understood. Could hardly relate to for more reasons than one.

For a moment her eyes drifted by the chatting pair - the glossy black with her startling sapphire eyes, starlight flecked exquisitely between her finely narrowed hips, and the painted, chimera stallion with luxuriously long locks curtained about his brawny shoulders; powerful, poised haunches and a superfluous, lavish coat of silky feathers skirting his waist; they were not so different to the twittering, flittering birds. Tawny skin flinched as she then considered herself in a rare and fleeting second of introspection. Hildegunn and her family looked all rather alike. Theirs was a pure and almost primordial line in which one or two variations in colour existed - slightly lighter or darker, nothing more fancy at all; so too did they share the same build, frame, short and meaty, designed solely for the purpose of surviving wild Skjoervø.

There was no more complexity to her placid personality then there was to her matted, overgrown pelt.

At last the little hen’s interest seemed to peak. With a face skewed left and the eye opposite fixed to one suitor above (they all looked uncannily the same to the watching horse), the bird began her own courtship waltz. Bright and piercing was the rousing chorus of their impulsive lust combined, and young Hildegunn coyly diverted her eyes down towards the familiarity of shadow flanked earth below.

With little desire to strike out by herself again after finally arriving in Vu’s company, (any company), there had been little choice but to pursue the irritable, violet-eyed beast. It had been neither a positive or negative motion; she was passive by nature, unsuspecting, and certainly too lazy to challenge ideals. And so it was that the small Fjord returned her concentration to the rambling conversation at hand - just in time too it seemed, for her friend was reaching with snapping teeth to seize her quarry. Hildegunn choked as a bubble of air inhaled, stuck fast in her windpipe. She almost cried out, but soon noticed the lack of animosity between her friends, their ‘cool, calm, collection', and quickly that bubble came loose. Within minutes, the lean appaloosa had chewed through a bind holding down that blanket of strange quills, though only the cord fell free to the floor.

Undeniably puzzled, the stout girl could not drag her eyes from the limp snake, vine, whatever implement it was - apparently previously unnoticed. While he waffled and fidgeted off to the side, Hildegunn remained characteristically oblivious, again distracted, shuffling nearer to his enslaver. With nostrils pumping suspiciously and twin ears twirling with instinctive apprehension, her dark face lowered to investigate; thoughts not for a moment dwelling on the consequence of it coming suddenly back to life. It never moved and she was almost certain it wore not the scaly skin of snake, so soon enough she lifted her nose away and turned to find her companions. It was then that the girl realised that he too bore bird’s wings (like the speckled girl in the forest); what she had presumed naturally to be some kind of extra insulation, had become instead weird added appendages.

With a preoccupied snort and firm distance between them both, Hildegun set herself once more to the task of trying to unravel what Vu and the decorated male were saying - it was fairly pointless to contribute, she had by then realised.