The stallion laughed and Kari grew almost an entire inch out of sheer pride. He grinned back sheepishly as the spotted drat pointed out his own lack of wings and shuffled his feet over the slippery crystal floor to gather himself in a less unbalanced (and slightly more dignified) posture, also returning the ruffled wings to their folded position on the shoulders.

"Sorry" he said and wrapped the long tactile tail around a hock, "Mom says I should talk about others wings... Was it very rude?" The blue eyes got a slightly worried look as they peered at Mauja, anxious that he might have touched a nerve by pointing out the very obvious lack of an important physical feature. Was it a sensitive subject? Did the strider wish for nothing more than to be able to soar the heavens like Kari could? Yet, as he looked at the stranger he didn't see any signs of sadness or irritation or that wistful look that some got when thinking of things they couldn't have. Actually, on a closer inspection the seasoned stallion didn't have much of an expression at all - that tug of the lips as he laughed seemed as likely to linger as frost in spring, a small crack in an otherwise impeccable facade.

It made the foal feel like an open book. He had many secrets for one so young, but every emotion drifted across the features of his face like colored leaves in a creek, expressed so vividly and plainly that it was like a shout against Mauja's whisper. It made him uncomfortable... was he being laughed at? Seen as annoying? Hated and raged at?

The boy was almost grateful for the chance to change direction of his decidedly unpleasant musings as another suddenly barged in. Shoving his way past the pale lord so that he had to take a step aside, he earned a rare frown of dislike from Kari as he walked further into the cave, silent and strange with the way he stared at them and the room.

"Mmh, you're probably right...What's that he's got in his mouth?" the hybrid whispered distractedly to his newfound friend and peered curiously at the rounded object lodged between jaws, intrigued but unwilling to move closer to the rude fellow. Unfortunately he was not quiet enough to keep it between the two of them; the walls immediately picked up the sound of his voice and bounced it around between floor and ceiling, unveiling his curiosity in a most embarrassing way. Kari hiccuped and shrank as he gave the intruder a wild look, certain he wouldn't mind being swallowed by the floor if it rose up to claim him... Somehow he managed to suppress the impulse to hide behind the Frostheart's sturdy flanks though, as that only would have made the situation even more humiliating.


I see your true colors