His hesitance did not bother me, rather, I appreciated him for it, I respected him for giving himself the time to think of his path ahead. Had he followed me meekly I would have thought him a fool, now I think of him as a being with some chance of holding intelligence, even if his query was brought on by fear of the unknown - one way to learn was to question, after all. I smiled warmly as I curved my bodice towards the path, inclining my crown, my entire posture inviting him to walk alongside me.

"Helovia has many places, all of them lit by the same strange lights at the moment. The beings who light our skies day and night have departed, though it is not a permanent state." At least, it better not be. "Should you wish to enter, you have a choice to make. You could follow me to my home, the World's Edge, to the West, where mists and forests overlook the sea with a cliff's clear view. Or to the South, where a desert stretches for as far as the eye can see. Or the North, where the Unicorns reside in a snowy palace. Or just North of here, but Eastern overall on the lands, lies the Foothills of a great mountain range." I pause, knowing I was speaking a great wave of information at the stallion, but smiling nonetheless.

"Or you could always venture forth alone, Outcast from the herds, left to the Wilds of the realm to have at you. And if none of that sounds appealing, then I shall not stop you if you turn around and trek along the path from whence you just came." It was all a test, a game, a dance of wits and a passage of information. Where his voice was heavy and dense, mine was light and smooth, flowing freely from my maw like warm honey, flooded with riches and treasures troves of precious information, if one understood how to dissect them. Most of the souls who wandered here were searching for someplace to escape their pasts - I hoped I had not been too abrupt with this gelding with my matter-of-fact manners, but if he was deterred from me by them, then he was not meant to follow me in the first place, and I shall continue on my way with no ill feelings.

"What is your name? And your purpose, if not to discover a new life for yourself?" I ask with gentle inquiry behind my eyes, hoping to give his voice a chance to run less like a creaking doorway and more like a well-oiled machine.