Darkness was starting to fall on the Meadow and Murtagh promptly decided that they just wouldn’t be getting back to the Falls tonight. Nighttime was for sleeping! “Mama I’m too tired to go home right now. Can’t we nap first?” The colt was unwilling to be nudged from the spot he had already picked out - sprawling out beneath one of the oak trees and all but nesting into the leaves he had freed up from the snow. A fit of giggles came from him in the next moment when a cold, grizzly bear nose came in contact with his exposed belly. A grunt - or an imitation of a bear’s grunt - proceeded Murtagh scrambling to his feet, preparing to roughhouse with the bear over the matter of sleep vs getting back to Papa.

But a third option presented itself, interrupting the start of the game, as lights started to pop up in the meadow off to the side, almost hidden by the trunk of the tree but the flash was too noticeable to miss. Murtagh twisted about and peeked around the oak tree to see what was happening.

It was a filly! And she was surrounded by the biggest fireflies he had ever seen! Which seemed a little funny, because it was cold and he had never seen fireflies out anywhere else lately. “Wow!” The exclamation had meant to be under his breath but it cut through the quiet, dusk air a lot louder than he had expected. Well, there was no hiding any longer even if he had wanted to (which he most certainly didn’t). There was no trace of exhaustion in him now as he hurried out from around the tree - approaching the winged filly with no hesitation at all. It was hard to decide what he wanted to focus on more - her or the brilliant lights that were dancing around her.

Murtagh stopped outside of the star-field, wondering just what would happen if he would touch one of them - his lavender eyes sparkling with the light from the stars. “Are you doing this?”

A crooked smile tugged at the corners of Murtagh’s mouth when she giggled. He didn’t think he had said anything funny, but it wasn’t a bad thing to make someone laugh right? Belatedly, he wondered if she had been laughing at him but soon enough there was a little bit of an explanation and a name for the star girl. “I’m Murtagh!” He whispered back, still conscious of how loud his ‘Wow!’ had been just a few moments ago.

“It’s uh, nice to meet you too, Asavvi.” He added a little sheepishly afterwards, trying to remember what the polite way to greet someone else was. She seemed to know so he followed her example. He didn’t want Eytan, who was bound to be lurking nearby and eavesdropping, telling his Papa that he had been rude to this filly. The grizzly was such a tattletale. But though his ears flicked back, seeking some sort of sign of the location of the grizzly, it was only a second before his entire attention was back on Asavvi. It was beautiful the way the lights were twinkling, like stars but right there.

“They are! I’ve never done magic before. I hope I can make something this cool one day.” If his expression wasn’t enough, lavender eyes shining with the light of the star field, his voice made his awe clear. He had seen some pretty cool magic but in this moment he couldn’t think of one that was this cool.

Encouraged by her ability to touch one of them, Murtagh took a hesitant step forward and reached out his black muzzle toward one of the shining orbs - only to be quickly rewarded by a burn. Jerking backward, Murtagh shook his head as though that would help, frowning angrily at the stars now. Though it was a mild burn, it hurt more on the soft flesh of his muzzle. “Oooh, they burn though!” He quickly ducked his head to douse the burnt skin in the snow by his feet, but all the while keeping his eyes on what he now saw as a dangerous girl and her stars. “How come they don’t burn you?” He muttered accusingly through the snow.

Murtagh received a very thorough first lesson on how the things that were beautiful could also pack quite the punch. Which, actually, he did already kind of know that because of his mothers but this was different because this was magic! He hadn’t gotten the chance to see such a beautiful display before and he had to admit, he was pretty upset that it had turned out to be tiny balls of fire that didn’t seem to like him very much.

But, he also didn’t like that it made her upset either to see him hurt.

Stubbornly, he kept his muzzle stuffed in the snow for her first apologies - even flattening his ears back a little bit and wondering if all fillies were going to be like this. Was he going to end up literally burned every time?  

The annoyance didn’t last very long, however. It never did for him! It was quickly washed away when he caught her hesitation in moving forward, as if she was going to help but she wasn’t sure if she should.

And then when she apologized again he started to feel bad. “Oh, that’s alright.” Murtagh muttered, raising his head and wincing a little bit - sporting a bright pink spot on the very tip of his muzzle. He wiggled his nose a little bit which caused a bigger wince but then he noticed that the lights were winking out, one by one, and that distressed him. “Oh! You don’t have to turn  them off, I’ll just be more careful. They were beautiful.” His lavender eyes brightened in a smile, the pain already being forgotten. “Can you make them appear or do they do that on their own?” The question was asked cautiously, hoping that it would smooth over what had just happened.