Relief eddied through my thoughts as Aylin began to relax. I wondered for the first time if youth provided an answer for her anxious temperament. Though if she had been gone long, alone and young… slowly my ears rotated back. Why involve myself at all in such a sad story? But I read Evangeline in her eyes, in the fine sculpture of her face. Of course I had called her beautiful, at first…

    Unfortunately, my manners lay far behind me, and my chosen method of opening conversation startled her – as it should, I supposed. Who was I, to ask such a question? Evangeline had no reason to tell her children of me, some long-ago friend, easily forgotten… But I gritted my teeth, wondering if, for all the joy she greeted me with, for all she ever spoke of looking for me… A tangled mess, and too much to lay at this girl’s feet.

    ”I apologize,” I began, but a moment later some commotion drew my ears: a pale shape bursting from the darkness, eager and feckless as any daft child had ever been. Yet it was not a child, at all – or a predator. I snorted as I recognized Aurelia, my eyes sliding with some disdain across her shape. ”Aurelia!” The word burst from my chest in surprise, consternation. ”What are you doing, creeping in the shadows like some wolf?” I snorted, muscles drawn taut under my skin, and sidled a bit closer to Aylin. At the same time I threw the dark mare a concerned look, afraid to find her bolting, scared away at last by the combined commotion and heedless actions of my daft herd mate. For a long moment I frowned at Aurelia, my surprise giving way to irritation, never mollified by the sweet (if foolish) noise of her words. I could not read the look she gave me, but returned it coldly nonetheless, about to address Aylin once more when yet more noise cracked in the bush behind the winged mare.

    Faeanne she called the creature. One of my ears tweaked back at the sight of the filly – young, very young. The other ear tipped back to join it. Momentarily I forgot my embarrassment, and drawing up to my full height, gazed down the length of my nose at Aurelia. ”Why are you treating the child that way?” She seemed almost… embarrassed? I gave the little creature a brief glance as it tottered up to me, rubbing my shoulder with a fragile nose. ”She ought to be safe at home,” I rumbled, still watching the girl, ”Rather than dragged across all creation to serve whatever foolish whim of yours… Have you any idea how easily a foal can catch ill? In a place filled with strangers – have you no sense?” I snorted, tossing my head in a flurry of dark hair. Previous conversation nearly forgotten – but she had interrupted it all, and why? Did I look so incapable of gathering herd mates on my own? Were there not others?

    Something in the tenor of my voice excited a cough; I paused a moment, lungs barking, and in that time regained a little of myself and the present situation. Concerns about the young foal aside, I had committed myself to approaching Aylin, and owed her at least most of my attention – and more tact, in perfect honesty. ”I hope we have not startled you too badly,” I muttered, wondering how best to breach the previous subject again – that Evangeline, as well, lived in the World’s Edge. That it seemed important, if they were related, as I supposed… ”There is a mare among our herd… you look much like her. Evangeline?”