For a moment, a breath, the child fears he has said the wrong thing. He has tried to hedge, to let the night phoenix take the lead and be right. He has tried because he though he fears he does not deserve the friendship of this onyx master he feels selfish. He wants it and so he will do anything to keep it. So why does the night phoenix stare at the sky like Adelric has asked him the very meaning of life? If he could know the phoenix's thoughts, hear them like the clouds hear the wind, then the child would not have been concerned. Now, he worries that he has said the wrong thing. After all, he has said the wrong thing before. As he waits for an answer, his heart seems to seize in his chest. He has ruined the sprouting web of friendship and thrashed the delicate lines of silk that tie him to the whole child.

But, ah! No! He has not ruined the silk. The whole child was simply pondering, of course. Adelric chastises himself for being so eager for a response that he has wrongly judged the child before him. He has made a mistake. But he cannot dwell on his mistake, he can only learn from it, so he vows to remember this moment and use it later. The next time he is too eager he will wait. Or, at least... he will try. But he cannot wait now, he should answer, respond to the night phoenix and turn the strand of silk into something strong, something less apt to break with a single wrong breath. “Just to pretend, though,” the lie spilling through his teeth far too easily for a colt this young. Where did he learn it? He doesn't know, but he has tasted the deceit on his tongue and he likes that it helps him co-exist with this princely colt. If this is what it takes to make himself worthy of some sort of friendship, a lie to build the ego of another, then he is surprisingly alright with it.

But now he has come to a new dilemma. Truth be told, no, he doesn't want to play but it isn't because he doesn't want to have fun. He does, he surely does! But trouble comes with having fun and he weighs his options carefully. A game... what sort of game? Is it a game of skill that he can throw on purpose, a game where he can let the night phoenix take the lead and come out ahead? Or is it a game of luck where his own luck might prevail? To win would not be adventitious, he wants to build Erebos' ego, not harm it. Of course, the other option does not seem that much better to him. A race would be easy to lose. Even if he was faster than Erebos (which he doubts, given his draft heritage and thicker bones) he could always slow down, let the black prince pull ahead and win. But what- he bites his tongue to even think of it- what if the night phoenix falls again like he did going over the hill? What if he trips over his feet and falls to the earth. Adelric cannot control that and it scares him because if Erebos falls and Adelric stands then he is obviously the winner. What to do?

In the end he decides that it is more likely he will be able to lose a game than prevent the night phoenix from the falling to the earth and so he takes charge, picks a game that does not really require any luck. It is a calculated risk, because Erebos could object to the game anyways, but it is a risk that the half-child must take because there are only so many options before him. Stepping forward and leading his head down, Adelric tries to butt his stump of a horn (Erebos seems to like horns) against Erebos' shoulder and then backs up, turning around to canter away. “You're it!” he calls out, running away just a little too slow to remain inconspicuous. He wants Erebos' to be able to catch him, but not to know that he has made it easy for him; unfortunately, he is a foal and foals make mistakes. He will learn.