There were so many horses all of a sudden, and they were all so tall! She barely reached the elbow of some, especially the blue-eyed unicorn that arrived soon after herself, and it was incredibly unfair. Only Reizend had a proper size it seemed, because even though she was more slender and pale and therefore looked much smaller than mother, they were almost the same height. Maybe Erthë would grow to be like that too one day? So shining and graceful and refined that everyone spoke with soft voices and smiles and acted as though she would break from an angry glare...

There were a lot of them going on here, it seemed. Even as she giggled and twisted about herself at the attention of the tall, dark and rather handsome - if you could look past the initial scariness of his face - stallion, the filly noticed, in the way children always seemed to notice, the quick glances and unspoken tension around some of them. Caleb didn't seem fond of Tembovu, and Tembovu looked like he wanted to push Caleb away, and the Res lady with the pretty red dragon that kept drawing her attention away only looked sad and a bit uncomfortable, and lady Reizend had an air of clumsy awkwardness that only made her prettier. The things they were talking about seemed very complicated, and there were a lot of introductions and stiff-legged trampling, but what really interested the young child was the few stray words that carried most weight.

"What game is that? How do you play?" she asked Caleb, the one clear eye glittering with enthusiasm at the prospect of getting to play rather than practice. This person was much more understanding of her needs than Mother! "Oh, I've already been in the Basin!" she announced at his offer, and puffed out the meager little chest until she almost toppled over. "Mom and Da an-and uncle Badger and I, we walked there because Ma was sick, she was bleeding a lot and then a mister with a deer - it was really pretty and stood right beside me! - he said she would get help and then.. then stuff happened so we didn't stay very long but I liked it very much!"

The woolly tufted tail coiled exuberantly as she explained, all in one breath, and had to break off to breathe and cough a little. But no sooner had the filly regained her breath than she was off again, prattling on like only a babe can.

"I'm fine, miss Reizend, because it hurts but only a little and mom think they will go away when I grow older but it really takes an awful long time to grow, does it always take this long?"

And with more curiosity than tact she jumped straight onto the sensitive parts, because why did they talk about it so hushed and serious like?

"Who is Midas? What is in..invasion? Why did you do that?"

With bright interest the foal looked between the grown ups, oblivious to the intricate turns and terms in this murky business called politics.