Night had come again, bringing with it the unexpected blessings he'd received in the heat of Tallsun, at a time when a fierce despair and desire to do something had raged in his heart. Now, he was just weary and tired, waiting for the unbearable heat to die off into the chill of autumn, and for the other two gods to act; they'd already come here and cleared up the broken trees, stripping charred bark from the trunks and helping branches stretch towards the sky once more. Earth had breathed life back into the forest's face, moss springing up with his aid to cover the carpet of ash, and Moon had filled his dried brooks with clear water, moistening the soil. In response to that, the Edge had surged with life, birds singing with renewed hope, some grasses regaining a little of its lushness, but most of all, it wasn't a complete graveyard anymore. Of course, it was a far shot from its former glory, and it was still obvious what had happened here, but it had helped revive some of the light in the Ice King's eyes. They would prevail. And the Sun, he'd pay. Or, something. Mauja was at the mercy of what the other two gods chose to do, but he hoped they had a solid plan on how to deal with their unruly brother and keep him from repeating this madness next summer. He sighed; could he trust them to find it in them to punish their brother, or would they just assume he'd not do this again? Well and truly helpless, the Edge King rubbed his cheek against a rebirthed tree.

The night wind slipped past his face, stirring the night and bringing the scent of strangers with it. Frowning, he pushed aside from the trees he'd been leaning against, and put his nose against the breeze. Both were vaguely familiar... He blinked his peculiar night-eyes, the silver shadow sitting deep inside his pupils like cataracts, and shrugged. Both were also trespassing. Flicking his tail against his hocks, Mauja set out at a leisurely pace, not feeling particularly hurried tonight. He probably knew them and didn't want them maimed beyond recognition, but one of them smelled of the Foothills... He didn't know anyone in the Foothills, did he? And it certainly wasn't any of the three leaders. Frowning, he slipped closer, a shimmering wraith in the dark forest. Moonlight guided his way through the slowly regenerating forest, and when he found one of the causes for the scent, he was pleasantly surprised. It was Aylin, the wise little moonchild, and Tallis, her mother's dragon. He'd invited them himself, so it was not strange that she was here. Apparently, her mother had done as she pleased and moved into the Foothills, taking her daughter with her. The other scent... Mauja paused, very much visible, frowning. He stood suspended between a patch of shadow and the light, like a half-materialized ghost. He knew that scent...

Frostbreath Steppe. Slush and sun, Korra, Lena, and a most curious predatory thing, which Lena was convinced meant no harm. And she was, actually, trespassing, since he'd not invited her. "Show yourself, wolf," he commanded her with quiet authority, not sure what he felt about having her here, lurking in the shadows. Mauja drifted across the ground, large frosty hooves leaving indents in the soft earth where they rested, coming closer to Aylin. His gaze, so different at night, landed on her emerald eyes for a moment, recognition there, but he paused again before making it all the way to her. He didn't feel safe, and likely wouldn't until the wolf-beast revealed herself.

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I froze at the sound of a voice coming from the shadowed woods. Tallis who was still perched upon my back hissed out a warning at it, smoke billowing from his nostrils. "It's alright, Tallis." I assured the dragon. While the voice had startled me I couldn't detect even a hint of malice in it. "Where are you?" I asked, my gaze sweeping across the forest. "Why are you hiding?" I certainly wasn't go to hurt whatever it was even if I was capable of doing so.

Someone was walking toward us. The steps were soft, but they were still there. Tallis hissed another warning at the one approaching and I looked around. What I saw was a little unsettling, I must admit. The pale unicorn was standing half in the shadows and half in the moonlight. I blinked, my head tilting as I tried to figure out who he was, but I couldn't.

It wasn't until he approached me that I realized who he was. "Mauja." I said, bumping my nose against him when he came to stand next to me. I then looked around as he commanded a wolf to show itself. That would explain why she had remained hidden and why Tallis had warned it off with the threat of fire. "You can come out." I said in an attempt to coax the wolf into revealing herself.

Slightly preoccupied with the wolf as he was, he didn't notice Aylin's erstwhile confusion. With his gaze still on the surroundings he returned the bump with a small, distracted smile. As an animal of flight instincts, the presence of a predator commanded him to be wary - to run, or be eaten. Beneath his skin, he was ready, nerves tingling and muscles taut. Lena's voice rolled through his memories, and how she believed the wolf-thing to be harmless: was she right, or was it just her misguided kindness? It was hard to fight down the powerful notion that the wolf would spring upon him in an attack, yet he held his ground, slightly gentled by Aylin's attempt to cajole the creature out. The child was wise; if she, too, believed it harmless, perhaps it was? Or, it was just some mare thing that would get them all killed one day...

She came out of the bushes almost at once, the only delay being her slipping through the tangle of branches, rustling them in her wake like waves upon a sea. She was smaller than he remembered, perhaps of a height with the filly when she walked upon all four like that. It also, eerily enough to the suspicious stallion, made her look all the more lupine. "I mean no harm..." Those words, again - perhaps they were true, then? Mauja's high head came down a fraction, and he let out a shuddering breath. Why was he even trying to shed some tension? Did he want the beast to lull him into a false sense of security, so he'd be easier prey? And what about Aylin, and Tallis? He glanced at the filly, but she didn't seem disturbed. Perhaps this wolf was different from her kin, then - while the wolves of Helovia were by no means primitive, they followed a different set of laws, different urges, different instincts. This one, she was - different, apparently. Larger, too, elongated somehow, even though she sat neatly out in the moonlight, fur tipped in silver. Her gaze traveled his beloved forest, but it seemed to hold no hunger, merely something akin to sadness. "I wanted to see if I could do something." Well, this was certainly the first time a large wolf told him it wanted to help. Owlishly he blinked, not sure what to make of it all. She looked at him with suspicion, but could he fault her for it, when he regarded her equally wary? No.

"The Sun God decided to pitch a fit and burn it down," he told her wearily, before sighing again. "Earth and Moon sped up the healing process a couple of weeks back." He felt awkward, ill at ease, out of place - with only Aylin, the moonchild, it would've been different. He could've told her welcome, laughed, been playful, shown her around, but the wolf... What to do with her? She was not of their hierarchy and certainly did not follow their rules - but, he hardly attempted to drive out each bear that walked his land, or drove the deer from his glades. They coexisted by the difference of their lifestyle, but the wolf challenged all of that by not belonging entirely in neither. Looking more tired than suspicious now, Mauja sighed again. "What are you, wolf?" he asked quietly. 'Who' would've, perhaps, been less rude, but he was afraid that question would only give him a name, and not an explanation as to her being's nature. Which laws did she follow, by which pattern did she sleep and hunt - why was she straying so far from her pack? She was the only of her kind he'd seen in Helovia, so why was she here alone? Now that his paranoia that she'd eat someone up in front of his eyes had settled down, curiosity bombarded him with a thousand questions.

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"I am wolf." But how could that be? She shared most of their features, he couldn't deny that; she was wolf from the tip of her snout to the tip of her bushy tail, but at the same time, she was so different. She stood taller, with elongated legs, the fur on her neck more like a horse's mane than a wolf's scruff... How could she then say that she was wolf, and merely wolf? As if it was the same as being a different type of horse? He guessed it was, but they had different names for their different kinds - Mauja would never stoop so low as to say he was a mere horse. He was a unicorn, proud and passionate, currently King of a herd that was meant to rule the world and crush the lesser beneath his frosty hooves. Did she have a different name for her kind too, or were they simply wolves to her? Only one way to find out... "We have different names for our kinds," he told her in his smooth, quiet voice. "Would you call your own by another name?" Curiously, his head tilted to the side. Perhaps the mares were right - perhaps she was no threat. Few of the natural predators of Helovia hunted the horse kin, simply because they were so adept at fighting back. Some still tried, and it wasn't out of any hate, merely the laws laid down by nature itself. So why was he having a conversation with one of them?

To make it all the more interesting, she dropped her name and said she'd like to stick around. The world ground to a halt around him as he stared at her, emotions masked cleverly behind the impassive blue of his eyes. She - what? Wanted to stick around? Who was he to stop her, really? She was not of his hierarchy, not of his kin, not beholden to the rules and borders of horses - so why was it framed like a question? Or was it just a very vague statement?

And what did he feel about it?

Even as she assured them both she did not eat horses, he remained thoughtful, as if not having heard her. His eyes landed on Aylin - she was of the Foothills, that damnable mixed place, with an equine mother and an equine brother. He couldn't speak too openly in front of her, and he found himself wishing he could split reality in two. In one, he would be with Aylin, talking of the Moon and prancing through the forest. In the other, he'd be quizzing Arathea on.. things. But alas, he couldn't do such a thing, and instead he was stuck here with a child and a wolf, with no idea how to address the situation at hand. Part of him was thrilled about having a potential ally in the wolf, but the other part was worried - was he losing his direction? She was not a horse. Mauja did not shun bears and deer. But if she tossed herself into their game, into their politics.. Just what would happen? Would his moral as a racist require she be made a servant and a slave to their glorious species - something he doubted he could propose without getting a set of teeth in his hind end - or would she willingly aid them anyway? And what did he become, then? What would Ulrik say? What on earth was he going to do with her? If she truly meant to partake in his herd... it challenged so many things, posed so many question to which he did not know the answer.

"We are of different cultures, different ways, different worlds in a sense - I do not prevent wolves to roam through my forest, as long as they pose no threat to my herd. But I sense that that was not what you meant, Arathea..." He'd let her answer that one herself - hopefully, it'd buy him a few more moments to think and sort himself out.

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( Trying to get this political stuff out of the way so we can include Aylin again x.x )

Strange, how mere words and unspoken possibilities soothed him. Despite the obvious fact that the relaxation originated from himself he could've kicked himself for allowing it. But still, there he was, slowly being consumed by a curiosity that pushed the wariness out. She was a wolf, they were all wolves - apparently not divided by the racism that "plagued" the horses. He wouldn't have picked those words to describe it himself, but he seemed to be the minority around here and kept quiet about it. Hopefully Aylin would approve of him being so accepting of a wolf, and spread the tale to those who looked at him with narrowed eyes. His words slipped into the air and he saw the wolf's ears fall back, as if he'd crushed some dream of hers, or hurt her; for a slight moment he felt guilty for it, but then pushed it aside, listening to her hushed voice instead. She offered herself so freely to him, heart and body and soul, suggesting rules - warning of dangers. Ah.. how could he resist that? The help of something as large and fierce as a wolf, an abnormally large unnamed subspecies of it? There just wasn't anyway, and he smiled softly, pushing the greed aside. She was a clever creature, knowing that if she were to get tangled up in their world she had to pay heed to their rules. And if he denied her to live here - well, there wasn't any telling where she would go. Just as with prickly Coris, he felt that he couldn't let this asset fall into the hooves of someone else. To meet a wolf on the battlefield... Disastrous. He fought down the shiver of pleasant excitement, keeping his body still.

"Forgive me my lack of manners - I am Mauja. And.. impossible, no, but mildly problematic at first. I myself have reacted with distrust, for wolves seldom take interest in my kind unless it's an attempt to make dinner out of us. To simply toss you into the midst of my family might elicit fear and distrust, but over time, surely they will grow used to your presence and accept you. In fact, I feel honored that you want to live here, and help protect this forest," he told her, his smile growing slightly warmer as he spoke. If he simply kept her around, and let the herd know that she was harmless and not to be harmed, then they'd probably grow used to her - accept her, too. Who knew where that would lead? And since he wasn't actively including her, Ulrik couldn't say anything about his heart being led astray. Right? The mechanic seemed to have a fascination for canines, since he always had one following on his heels, soulless eyes regarding the world with a constant red glow. "I could name you a Warden of the World's Edge, which would give you a right to be on here should someone question you about it." His eyes narrowed a fraction, focusing on her. "But with it would come the responsibility to help keep this land, and preferably by pack too, safe from harm, whether it be gods or mortals. Would you be willing to offer your protection in exchange for safe conduct and recognition throughout this forest? It would certainly make your task of helping the forest easier if you were not questioned wherever you went." And the promise to attempt to include you in said pack in the future... Please say yes, even if you have some terms to add.

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