She said nothing to me at first, her lips sealed. I frowned, my dark lips curling down in a gentle frown. I felt a little hurt, that she would not answer me. I huffed, my warm breath swirling into a white cloud before disappearing, devoured by the chilling air surrounding us. I shuddered, invisible fingers of ice caressing my wounds. Ru's soft, sugar soaked voice broke through my moment of pain, and I looked up. "Not here, Tingal. It is...a sensitive matter." I nodded my head understandingly. I did not wish to provoke Ru's emotions, not now that was. "I understand."

Within a few moments there is a voice, and a stallion. He is a bay, his legs decked out in a dark shade. His left haunch was given a silver marking. Where... had I seen him before? I reached within the corners of my mind, realizing now where he had been before. Several others had gathered in the Heart to battle a demon, and in the end, this stallion had been given in egg. His name, however, was still unknown. He asked why Ru sought the Basin, telling her it was no place of hopes and dreams.

Ru's response told me that she sought a home within the Basin, and suddenly my gut was twisted for two reasons. I didn't know of this Faelene Ru spoke of, but something deep inside told me I had seen her somewhere before. "Faelene?" I murmur, my words picking up the conversation before it could fall to the ground. But my gut was knotting for another reason as well. If she sought a home in the Basin, would they take note of the horns on my head? I was of no unicorn blood, and as rumors had it, the Basin had a strict rule. Equines and pegasi were of the lower class, and their blood was of no use to the Basin. So would my faux horns surpass their inspection, would I be accepted into the Basin? If they saw past my mask, and didn't allow me into the Basin, my heart would tear. I would be breaking my promise of staying by Ru's side, of being her guardian, of being her protector.

Ru then went into hissing about her family, and how they had had teased and mocked her. During that time I felt bad for her, having been shunned by her family, I had never felt that way. But I had never known my father ( I has seen him briefly before, but I had never gotten to know him) and my mother had been lost to me when I was Ru's age. At least she had a family, mine had vanished during my first year and a half. But there were still strangers who taunted me for my looks, and some that rejected me for how strange I appeared.
"Talk talk talk"