Voices, hoof beats —
You heel back, sitting on your butt with an oof! as a couple of assholes charge up and stare at you from nearby. You don't think of them as rude, at first. Actually, you're a little scared because both stand taller than you and one is the weirdest horse you've ever seen while the other looks mean. You're not really sure what about him looks mean, but you know he definitely does — not like Mama or Vesper at all. You were sort of waiting for one of them to join in your game, and not a giant grumpy asshole...
Surprise grips you so firmly you just sit there for a while. With all the numbers spooked out of your skull, you need to start over anyway, and suddenly you feel a little tired. Missing Mama again, you glance about in vain search for the familiar beauty of her star-studded body, but she's nowhere to be seen. You're on your own.
Your mouth opens like you might answer Grumpy's question, but you're not ready yet, so it closes again. Instead, you tilt your head in an exaggerated motion toward the — the — well, you don't know what it is. Slowly, a little reluctantly, you stand up and stare. Mama really ought to teach you not to do that, but since she's taking the hands-off style of parenting at the moment, you do it for a long, long silent while. Your eyes travel, up, up, up along the tines of the weird-horse's horns. They remind you of something....
Trees? Definitely trees!
Invigorated by the realization, you give a little hop, hooves clattering sharply on the stone. And forgetting how sort-of-mean the other guy seems, you dance up to the tree-horse and snuffle as close as you can to its trees. Why doesn't it smell like a tree? And what's it doing with this normal unicorn and you? Is it like the other big ones, living in Mama's valley?
The tree-horse doesn't read your mind in order to answer these questions fast enough, so you shoot an inquisitive glance over to the grumpy one. Now that you're not scared, though, you think maybe he's not so bad. His voice isn't like Mama's, but he's a boy, so maybe it's not supposed to be all soft and gentle. You don't have many boys to compare him to, so in an extraordinary gesture of kindness, you offer him the benefit of the doubt. The warriors at Mama's meeting, after all, sounded sort of mean, too. So you wait for him to explain his miraculous friend. Maybe, if he does it well, you'll show him your game after all.
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