He moves with grace that is unbefitting of an equine of any sort, and Hotaru is intrigued by it. Though she doesn't really want to make him uncomfortable by asking, she is dreadfully curious about his lineage. Surely he is not fully horse, the flickering tail behind him was clue enough. Hotaru loved to simply know things, but she wasn't rude enough to throw the blunt question at him. Instead she tilted her tiny head to look up at him. Tingal towered over her with a size that was large even to most adults, but dwarfed her in comparison. Ru didn't mind, in fact thought it was rather 'cool' as Raeden would call it most likely.

It confuses her to see his face fall, as well, once hers does. Is it sympathy? Understanding? Pity? Ru didn't know the depth of a lot of emotions at her age, but decided it wasn't her place to ask once again. Even if she had wanted to, she was more tangled in her own melancholy thoughts than in pestering him with inquiries that were sure to drive him mad. All that is given in reply to his question over if she had a twin was a nod. Though she looked up once more as a soft appendage stroked her side comfortingly, a bright splash of orange and black against the cream and strawberry of her own canvas. Ru let out a tiny giggle to herself at the feel of it, a bit foreign to her. However brief joy is replaced almost instantly with relief that she is not alone, and a certain glow came to her dichromatic eyes that had not been there before. Hotaru was so very lonely sometimes, and the thought that Tingal knew how she felt made her feel a bit steadier on the earth. He actually understood! Even with the situation about siblings! It nearly blew her mind to find out that there was someone else out there in the world that could say, truthfully, that they had experienced what she was currently going through.

However her glow of joy is turned to a flush of embarrassment at the praise. Phaedra complimented her sometimes, but Hotaru always felt uncomfortable because she always thought she was lying. Why wouldn't she? Despite the soft spots along her spine, Raeden had been the one to inherit most of their mother's looks. Ru often found herself hating the pink along her body, the white that roaned its way between the color she wished to have and the one she hated. It was like someone had squished her mother and father on top of each other with a line of white to draw where one ended and the other began. Ru had never found it particularly pretty, so Tingal's kind words made her dip her head shyly, silver forelock falling into her eyes out of habit to hide herself from the world. "T-Thank you," she managed to whisper at last, peering out from her hair so that only her green eye was visible, but the gratitude and happiness there was more than enough to show Tingal that she had truly appreciated what he had said.

Though her legs were getting a bit too cold for her liking, she turned and looked at...whatever Tingal was looking at. What was he looking at that he wanted her to see? But the answer came to her rather quickly, watching as one of the trees on the bank shuddered to life like a waking bear and began to move towards her slowly. Hotaru stared at it, eyes and mouth dropping into perfect, small o's. It bent towards her like a gentleman bowing, before straightening and reassuming its position, still once more. Hotaru whirled to face Tingal, surprise coating her eyes. "That's so awesome!" Childish delight and wonder coating her tone as she bounced on her toes before him, smiling radiantly.