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03-07-2013, 12:55 AM
VALKA
Valka watched her shadow slant over the stranger’s small frame. Accustomed though she was to looking down her nose, Valka still found the sensation odd. This stranger blended well into the darkness – was she a practiced spy? Assassin? Scout? One with such a somber, dusty hue would be well-suited to pursuits of stealth. It would assuage Valka’s ego, too, to know she’d been surprised by a master of subterfuge and not some random, chunky little horse. The unicorn’s mind whirled fast away from the conversation at hand, though she picked over Sulwyn’s words quite carefully when next the grulla spoke.
”Helovia…” The word flowed over dark lips. Valka’s ears twitched back in some approximation of a frown. She wondered if perhaps Sulwyn meant something caustic by the words – not just a welcome, surely? Not for one like her? She hesitated for a moment longer, stammering on her own tongue. Perhaps things are different here, the thought occurred. I am no pariah. Foolish though she felt taking the dull greeting at face value, Valka had little other choice. She had no desire to alienate her first acquaintance in this place… Helovia. ”I am called Valka,” she said at last. Odd speaking the name to one who did not know it – did not know her. She could be anyone here, now. Anyone who ran from awful beasts and got their horn stuck in a tree.
Good feelings going cold, Valka nodded her head. ”I might ask,” she put forth slowly, and her strange eyes slid over Sulwyn’s face as she mulled through the question, ”what a one such as yourself is doing here? Do you make these trees your home?” She hoped for a no, of course. Trespassing on top of looking like a fool – her reputation would never recover. Going from witch-daughter to herd fool was no ascension; it was, if possible, the exact opposite.
