To think that the one whom I am watching currently would not be the one to spot me was not a thought that passed my apparently pea sized brain. The shout is like a crack of thunder in my skull, it reverberates and finds its way to my knees, already shaky, which nearly fold in on themselves and I clench my jaw to remain standing with sheer will. Falling down in panic would be the last thing mother would do in this situation, so I must remain calm. My head turns hurriedly the direction of the noise to see a spunky pegasus trotting my way. I shrink back immediately, as if she were on fire and just a touch from her body would burn my skin.

I nearly slouch back on my hind end, the unsturdiness of my front legs apparent in the awkward movement, but my rear end manages to catch on a warm, furry surface. Nearly leaping in fear in the other direction, I calm my wits, gathering up enough courage to look behind me where a familiar figure is resting by my back legs. His entry had not been noticed by me, and it did not apparently register to the fillies quite yet anyway. The fluffy brown surface was a small bear cub, who was bonded to mother, and an almost ever present fixture at the side of either her or I. Mother called him Eytan, but I had settled on what I thought was all the more apt title: 'Bear'.

The presence of the mammal makes me feel a bit more secure with the two sisters who are apparently going to make it their mission to put me under direct scrutiny now. I tuck my head down toward my chest and stare downward at my pigeon toes, looking at their glistening bronze hue with a look of disinterest. The accusation of the larger filly makes the rain immediately feel colder; as I suspected, I was nothing more than a labeled bother to these girls. Such was the way of them, I figured, continuing to take a strange interest in the ground as my eyes appear to be glued to the uneven, darkening surface of the Throat.

Even as the wobbly little filly makes her half prance my way, Bear senses my discomfort and clings closer to my small side, standing next to my legs as a way of reassuring me that I had at least one on my side, one who cared for me in this instance. I make a shy glance with my bicolored eyes, bloody earth behind a small tuft of silver hair, at the filly speaking to me. The older one had referred to her as Azulee, which was a pretty name, I thought. Mother and I had repeating sounds in our name, but hers was more like Ophelia's in that it just had one continuous flow, undisrupted by repetition or cycling.

"Uh..." I drag out the sound ineffectively trying to answer her question, eyes slipping from her charcoal face and back toward the ground, glancing around my shoulder to where the bear stood, calm, patient eyes guiding my tongue forward where I could not. "I'm Hototo." My name sounds foreign on my lips as I speak it, but the actual name itself is not difficult to say. Normally, I only spoke to those who knew of me, knew my name. I cannot recall ever having to say it myself, in fact.