Ashamin's heart jumped in his chest when the new mare spoke. "My friend."

Family was different than friends. Ashamin had, until recently, always had family, but he had never had friends. And for so long family had been only a tie of blood and care. His family, now being dead, was something he would have to find again. Was he to find family in friends, then? Were the two mares before him to become sisters, sisters of the herd, of the frost, of the heart?

His excitement was difficult to contain--it jutted out from between his emotional fetters in quick, excited gasp-like jerks of his long tail. It waved behind him an uncontained animal, long and extended towards the two mares at his back. He listened as their words blurred behind him, his mind a haze of boundless joy. The prospect of finding, once more, a place where he could be comfortable in snow and the warm embrace of company was more than he had hoped for. Was the Basin like this for all, as it was for Rexanna, as it was for he?

Happiness--oh how he could not rid himself of its curious vexation.

Lena's voice stuck out through the blur when she concluded her comments with a question. A tour? Nothing would make Ashamin happier. He stamped his front hooves in anxious pleasure and turned with a sort of twirl of a buck back towards the two. "That's a good idea," he responded with a whinny and a nod, his horn rattling faintly with his motion. He backed further into the lands, his tail still twitching, his black eyes catching the light and a glimmer of his anticipation. "It would be nice, to see more of this place..." in his mind, as he spoke, he thought about the place as home.

Ashamin was eager, but knew he could not lead. With a submissive dip of his countenance, he side-stepped and sashayed from where he stood, before and facing Lena, so that he might make way for the mare. She was his senior and his superior in more ways than one, he knew that even without knowing what her title of "time mender" implied. He cast Rexanna a sidelong glance from where he stood beside her, punctuating it with a smile. Even though she was an official member of the herd and he was just a visitor (or was he, now, more? Would he spend the night here after all, and wake up among their open-hearted ranks?) he was thankful to not be the only one new to the lands. It was good to feel accompanied, and more than just physically. While Lena had provided him the support of her presence alone, he could relate more to the other mare's position as a newly inducted herd member.

He moved closer to her, perhaps simply taking comfort in being near another, and lifted his head to more clearly reveal his smile. His horn cast odd shadows across his face--most blended into the dark mask, a few cast over the white blaze that ran over his features. "It is good," he said slowly, nervous just to be speaking when not spoken to, "to not be the only one new, here."

Concern suddenly knitted itself across his brow, hidden beneath the shadows and twists of his horn but perhaps present in his expression. Ashamin turned to Lena but stayed close to Rexanna, seeking comfort of a sort in her recent knowledge of the processes here. "Lena... could I perhaps, be, here?"

The words had not come out right. Ashamin exhaled slowly, trying to gather the courage to ask the question again, this time properly. "Could I join you, in the Basin?" He asked, his voice taken by a slight quiver, the tuft at the end of his long tail moving to brush against Rexanna's hind legs, from her left hock to her fetlock. Her reciprocation of his earlier gesture, accepted with such ease, had not gone unnoticed. Now, he turned to her in a moment of anxious fear, hoping she might give him some sign of comfort. As Lena had, as the snow had, as the sky still did, in eternality.

[[OOC: Sorry for the wait, was on absent.]]
[[Tagged: @[Lena], @[Rexanna], anyone else who wishes to join. Possibly a lead for in character acceptance purposes? (Probably @[Ophelia], given that Heather's already RPing here. :P)]]

Ashamin