He is the first to remark on the fact she won, and a shit-eating grin spreads slowly across her mutilated face. Well, she wasn't going to mention it, but since he brought it up..."Not too bad for somebody so inferior that my father should have slayed me at birth, hmm? The daughter of a lazy idiot and a failure?" God bless her memory; she rarely forgets insults against her, because how else will she gain vengeance? Of course, all thoughts of vengeance against this boy have been dropped when he hinted about his mother and resulted in her dreaded Feels bursting right on through, but that doesn't mean she can't use his previous words as a stick to beat him with.

His next words - against her better judgement, given that they're so obviously sarcastic - incite a true belly laugh in her, one that bubbles out of her lips and lacks any of the icelike harshness of her previous one. Her grey eyes widen, alarmed, and she makes a garbled attempt to turn the laugh into her usual frigid chortle before he notices the fact he's actually genuinely amused her, but it just results in a sound akin to a dog being fisted (or so she imagines). Embarassment burns the skin beneath her fur and she lashes her tail harder than necessary against her flanks, as though self-flagellation will undo the sound that burst unbidden from her chest. For fuck's sake. How does this boy bring out these things in her? All those disgusting little things that she would dearly love to purge out of herself - empathy, understanding, the ability to laugh with someone rather than at them - seem to erupt in his presence. It's really rather alarming.

He remarks that he has the magical ability to make everyone he meets love him, and this time Oizys manages to murder the laugh before it ever comes into existence. "Well damn, and here was me thinking you had the magical ability to make everyone you meet want to ram their inferior horns so far up your ass, you'll shit out of your nostrils for the rest of your life." Her dry remark is said with the slightest trace of contempt, a healthy dose of sarcasm, and just the tiniest hint of genuine well-meant humour.

He then proceeds to show her his actual magic, and she watches with an impassive eye. Shit, it's actually pretty cool. He sends a stone flying with such force that she imagines it could shatter bones if it was directed at a living creature (and, indeed, she's half-surprised that he didn't seize the opportunity to aim it at her). She fights to school her face into neutrality, but fails miserably - despite her desire, approval lights up her stony gaze. "Hmmph. If mine's something shitty like making flowers come out of people's assholes, I'm going to be just as pissed as you." What would Father think, if she was blessed - cursed - with a useless magic? She wants to be like him, horse by day but serpentine hunter by night; she wants to incite fear into the hearts of her enemies with her magic.

He explains that he found the urge to use magic was like an itch; she desperately hunts her body for anything itchy, but only finds a burr stuck in her tail-hair from her trek through the forest. Not helpful. "Alright, let's give this a shot. I'll try and keep my flowers from your backside, if that is what my power is." She inserts just enough ambiguity into her tones to hopefully make him worry that she would, in fact, deliberately send his ass into full bloom.

The gargoyle closes her eyes, safe in the knowledge that Ker will warn her if the colt tries any funny business whilst she's unawares, and focuses her full concentration inside herself. She searches, hunts for any urge, any impulse; for a while her search is fruitless and she wonders if the antlered creature was just having a laugh with her and that she hasn't actually got any new magic. But then - aha! - she finds it; a nub of raw power, nestled deep within her mind. She delves into it, draws out its content, milks it dry...

The air next to her sizzles, and from a little patch of sky erupts a creature the size of a horse. The size of a horse, yes, but where a horse is made of flesh and bone, this is made of electricity - livid blue-black electricity, crackling with such force she can almost taste it. "Woahhhhhhh," is the only sound she can make; she's sure this spark-horse is of her creation, because her strength is suddenly sapped and she feels as though she's ran a marathon. She nudges the nub of magic, exploratory, and the spark-horse trots around. It is clearly not sentient, because its presence in her mind is not like Ker's, with emotions and feeling. It is simply pure spark, channelled into the shape of a horse.

She focuses on Ker, pictures an eagle in her mind; next to the spark-horse, a spark-eagle bursts into sizzling life. This time, the sap on the gargoyle's strength makes her legs wobble, but she'll be damned if she's going to collapse when she has this new power at her fingertips. Ker, alarmed and disgusted at this shocking interloper, flies towards the spark-eagle with talons outstretched, howling her war-cry into the heavens....

ZAP! The Philippine squeals in pain as she touches the creature and is electrocuted by it, her feathers bristling and her eyes rolling. Through their bond, Oizys feels the burn of the shock, like what she feels when she touches Mother's skin when she has her thunder-shield up. The spark-eagle fades, burning out like a dead star, leaving just the horse. It is only the same size as Oizys herself, a mere foal, but it crackles with power and nefarious intent.

She looks at Kid, her eyes wide with awe at her own ability, for some reason (that she can't fathom) interested in his reaction.