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A silvery shape broke from the shadows further upstream. Ezital's heart jumped frantically in his chest as everything he could recall about wolves raced through his mind. Were wolves the ones you were supposed to avoid eye contact with and remain still? Or was that for cats?
He was still trying to sort through it all when an equine sigh drifted his way on the breeze and something in his belly eased slightly. There was still danger in strange horses, he knew, but at least none of them had tried to eat him yet.
The mare spooked when she finally noticed him, like he might be something to fear. He snorted lightly. Sure, he was scrappy enough to survive a squabble and perhaps do a bit of damage, but he wasn't nearly dumb enough to seek out unnecessary conflict.
She seemed impossibly tense as she introduced herself to him, though he might've only picked up on it due to his own stress earlier. He couldn't help but think that she seemed far too exotic for such a place as this. Surely she belonged in some winter wonderland, prancing about in the snow?
Perhaps that was why she looked so uncomfortable. Out of her element?
As he opened his mouth to ask, the trees shuddered and expelled a massive expanse of tan and chocolate horseflesh. He shied back a step and his ears fell flat against his skull for a few moments. His mind was having trouble processing the sheer size of the horse before him, however slow and mild he might appear. Ezital was quite certain that he could walk beneath his belly if only he ducked a little.
The huge stallion's voice filled the clearing like a great roll of thunder, but the words were kind and almost seemed as if he found all of their posturing and tension quite ridiculous.
Yet another silhouette slipped into the little clearing and Ezital berated himself for just happening to select the most popular watering hole in all of the forest. He would've been so much better off holding out for puddles of rainwater in the morning. Thankfully, this newcomer was a much more manageable size than the other two. Perhaps even equal to himself, if he arched his neck a bit. But as the horse stepped forward, it became clear that it was only a very young filly, who would likely outgrow him by the end of the season. He felt only a little bitter about that. Seriously, only a bit.
Somehow, seeing the filly playing with her pup was enough to put him at more ease than he'd been since walking out here. He cocked a hip under the guise of complete comfort with these strangers.
"Not at all," he replied to the filly, Vitani. "I was merely on my way to seek shelter from the rainstorm. Do you think that Tembovu over there would let me use him as an umbrella?"
He boldly met the gaze of the towering stallion. "It's Ezital, by the way."
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