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Should the bubbling enthusiasm dancing through her expression have been any more potent, she might have missed completely the momentary grin; the generous attempt to pass a joke by her fidgeting ears, by the antlered warrior. To her he was strangely distant, a creature who was intriguing and challenged her ideas of normalcy, but at the same time too intimidating to truly approach. The dappled mare was used to those with a blander exposé; the weak, the ailing and the vulnerable alike were all sorts she found comfort in tending to, and Gaucho seemed ridged, fierce and strong- aloof and abrasive, though only perhaps because of her nervous unwillingness to venture nearer. At the hint of that smile, she was taken aback and found something like silly coyness clouding her eyes. It was the ever so slightly softer side, maybe, that she had never realised existed. Appropriately she giggled along, though it was more a subtle and derisive stab at herself than anything else.
Gaucho transferred himself to the front of the small troop and continued then, and the one-winged grey was glad to be pulled from the pit of her ever-churning thoughts. As Gaucho walked with echoing clicks of hoof against stone, Africa noticed a strange glow about the antlers which towered above them all. Curiously (but without surprise, because by now she had been witness to a great many phenomenon’s in Helovia), she witnessed the emergence of glowing bodies of light shaped much like both Fina and Silas. They were rather beautiful in this dark subterranean world where even the palest hues of moonlight did not flare, and she watched adoringly as they drifted in silent unison down the corridor ahead. Midas followed soon after, and Africa tightly behind- though not so close that the brush of a careless nose might bother the tail of her gold fringed friend.
Still she was glad for the company around her, the presence of such valour giving her much needed confidence so far now (it felt like) from home. Though comfortable she was below the ground, in the most unfitting of locations for their kind, Africa was not content so much when she did not have the security of the Throat’s border wrapped snugly around her girth- she was grateful for the prowess of their army, and those who defended the wall so tirelessly.
When at last they paused by the mouth of a large cavern, the dappled mare stepped from her rearward position to peer with wonder filled eyes at the gaping fire-lit room around them. Gaucho moved to the wall, though Africa’s eyes were gambolling through the cool, dewy air all around. Her still focused ears heard a wordless breath leak from the lips of the black and white stallion nearby, and slightly louder; more comprehendible, the revelation of the dun that the walls were unmarred by his touch. With the playful innocence of a competitive child, the young Pegasus moved closer to Gaucho to graze the strange surface herself, reaching upwards her knee so that a sharp, chipped hoof could be thrust at it. She blushed invisibly beneath a sheet of pale grey as eyes narrowed upon the clean expanse of wall- certainly if one so primed as Gaucho had not been able to wound it, what hope had she to even try!
Silas croaked quietly, resting unaffected upon her rump as she turned to follow the sound of Midas’ suggestion to delve still further. Like him, as her roused pulse began to mellow, Africa noticed the soft murmur of water rising from the depths and she nodded without speaking, waiting for either to start them forwards again. She wondered in secret if such a cave might be the saviour should something sinister like the endless night ever fall across the country again. She and her beloved Zephyr had survived well on the bountiful slicks of algae and moss, which also laced in parts the floor they walked upon now. Perhaps all of Helovia might have similar inklings though, and there was no way possible a cave (no matter how deep), could sustain the life of more than one herd.
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[O] Lets get our hooves dirty (guacho, africa, open)
