As they head up past the waterfall, friendly curiosity comes from Midas and Wilibald finds the questions pleasant – and certainly well warranted. He often second-guessed himself about leaving, wondering if it was the right thing to do. He was certainly the first Anduin pony to have travelled so far; many just lingered in the foothills of the mountains and visited the ocean before going back. “Curiosity isn’t a common trait in my kind, but when we reach maturity it often finds it’s way into our minds – we call it ‘Trouble before Ten’ because it usually happens before we’ve seen ten springs. Before we settle down.” It was the general term for the phenomenon, something almost every Anduin Pony went through. “So I became curious about the world outside of our mountain chain and found my way here.” He left it unsaid that he likely would not have come to Helovia if he knew how strange it would have been. It seemed like a cruel mockery of his little bit of curiosity that he would end up here, where so much was odd and made him nervous.

It was with an appropriate sense of embarrassment that Wilibald realized he had not been quite as discrete about his staring as he had originally thought. Ducking his head slightly with an ear flicking back, though the embarrassment coloured his voice easily enough without these outward signs. “I apologize about how I have been staring. The herds were indeed made of only equines. I’ve yet to see another without some sort of adornment since I have come here – though you are the first with wings.” He remembered the sickly looking fellow in that dark forest, the one with the horn. “Does everyone here possess extra limbs?” Wilibald had fit in his entire life – an average pony in an average herd, nothing was odd about him.

Wouldn’t it be a strange twist of fate if he was the odd one out in this place?

The sun shone ahead, and Wilibald found himself rather excited to see what lay on the other side. He had thought where they had begun their ascent was beautiful, but surely what lay ahead would put it to shame.

And of course, it rather did. Moving to stand beside Midas, he took in the sight of the valley before them, with rivers and lakes and trees and all the comforts of home. “Well you did promise me green.” He commented with a grin retaking his features, the embarrassment of before forgotten at least momentarily. On the other side of the waterfall he had been content, but this was something all together rather wonderful. “Simply beautiful.” And with an edge of fondness, he revisited his earlier answer to the question of why he had left the Anduin Valleys. “You see Midas – this right here, this is why I left my home.” To experience foreign lands like this was truly a privilege.