WE WERE STRONG.
we stayed bright as lightning. we sang loud as thunder.
we moved ever forward.</style>
Down, down, down. I fall like a rock from the sky as I see a mass of bodies building on my borders like deformed vultures crowding around a corpse. My wings whistle in the air and the wind drives me downward, increasing in speed, my eyes narrowing as my mane whips madly about, clouds thrashing clear of my face until I am free falling in the blue sky, back toward the red earth of my home, my face already contorted like hard rock. I am speeding aloft, before my distance becomes dangerously low and I pull out my wings to stop me, righting my body and gliding the few hundred paces that I was away from the crowd, my hooves touching down with a clap that rivaled thunder as I continue to surge forward.

My body slows with a skid that kicks up a massive cloud of dirt. I was a fan of arriving with dramatic flair, drawing all immediate attention toward me so that my words would not fall upon those who were not attentive. I use the wind to quickly clear my cloud of red smoke, dark eyes dangerously falling on the faces of all in attendance, nostrils flaring as I take in the scent of those around. Aurelius I recognized as the short little midget who had been in this home before, and I eye him with narrowed slits but say nothing. Likely a racist ass if Valentine's story was true, but I had no way of knowing if the little goat was one himself. The larger issue was not the brute who I recognized from the Basin, but the little spotted brute of red who stood looking regally over my borders. He had a reek of the Foothills, and that already causes my ears to fall back on my poll in annoyance.

"I see those of the Foothills have finally learned where my borders are," I say with biting intent, looking toward the stallion whose last words I had caught briefly. I seek your sultana on matters of diplomacy. I look at him with a smile that held no humor, but rather looked like a bearing of teeth as if I were canine. "You were already speaking to one sultana, but I suppose you came here for me." I look toward Sumati and give her a stern nod, looking at Valentine with questioning eyes before turning back toward this stallion. I suppose he was the new Leader of the Foothills. It was no surprise seeing as Evers and Paladin had not even managed to grasp the simple gesture of waiting to be received into a land before barging in.

Basic manners. Looks like this one has it together. "Kri the Resolute," I say, my voice direct but neutral. "Who are you and what do you seek from me?"
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