Annoyance shifts to amusement as the older stallion stares down at his youthful company, a lazy grin spreading across his weathered face. The filly’s trailing voice, unsure which male to be more offended by, and her brother’s overly confident gibes remind him just how perceptive and still cripplingly ignorant children can be. They so easily pick up on subtle nuances that others might miss among the din of formality and expectation, but the advantage is immediately lost when they misconstrue the meaning of what they’re seeing for lack of any substantial context to go with it.

He shakes his head at the pair, unable to take the colt’s sass as a genuine insult, though for the briefest of moments he thinks he can see the boy’s anger materializing into the air around him, thickening into a fog of weightless dust that slightly obscures his vision. Apprehensive, the stallion gathers his own magic in response, an invisible miasma of energy and intention swelling around him, but the ashen cloud dissipates as soon as the filly’s tawny shoulder bumps into her brother’s brindled side, and though he has more than enough temper and noxious vocabulary to escalate the exchange, he chooses to tease instead, peering down his nose at the colt as if examining some part of him that’s gone unnoticed until just now.

“You do have quite the mouth on you,” He ponders, “How do you know we haven’t already been together?” He raises his brows then, sure the boy is quick enough to catch his suggestion without any further prompting. It’s then that his companion, comfortably wrapped around the base of one backswept spiral horn, decides to interject.

The newborn python has been content to simply observe his bonded’s mind until now, gingerly examining the emotions and expressions within as they come and go, but the sensation pulling at his insides like a tiny vacuum of pressure isn’t mirrored anywhere he can feel, so he presses the idea against the stallion’s own thoughts with an apologetic edge of inquiry. “Hm?” The stallion answers aloud, unaccustomed to the silent speech of a companion bond. His left ear cups forward, trained toward and almost touching the young snake where he sits coiled. “Hungry?” He questions, feeling the snake’s emptiness seep into his own stomach as they share and explore cognitive awareness’s.

He turns to the filly then, a millisecond of apology flashing through his eyes - he does like foals after all - as he realizes he's ignored her this entire time, likely dampening if not extinguishing her earlier concern. He looks to her tiny withers where a single row of corn silk hair sticks straight up along her crest, her lightly colored fluff of a companion clinging there haphazardly. Whatever the creature is, it can't be much older than Albrecht's snake, or otherwise is slow to develop. He can't even pick out any distinguishing features of the thing aside from what must be a tiny beak poking out of the darker fluff around it's eyes.

The colt's companion at least has a definite shape with its black stripes, stiff mohawk, and pointed ears. Turning to the boy and his pup, embarrassment threatens to creep into his stance, but the expression quickly changes to one of shrewd consideration. “So which one of you is the better hunter?" A little sibling rivalry never hurt anyone who stands to benefit either way.



OOC // Zero scruples. Zero. xD @Kiada @Kianzo