When not out in Helovia searching for her brother and family, Vastra spent her days in the Throat learning everything she could about the flora and fauna that lived there. Without guidance, many of the names she gave to the creatures were made up gibberish. But she adored them all - whether they were slimy slugs that stuck to her legs when she went wading into the lake or birds she tried to get close to on the beaches as they hunted in the shallows.

On this day, in the heat lessened by the clouds rolling in front of the sun, she was observing some lizards leap to catch abundant flies near the ocean. Or, that had been the plan, until larger movements caught her attention and she turned her head to watch two figures crest the dunes neighbouring the ocean.

It was another red filly - but where Vastra was red like the sand and fire, this filly red like blood, red like the sea creatures Vastra had discovered with Castor. She was a rich red that stood out blatantly from the dunes and rocks and desert of their surrounding. The mere fact that this strange filly did not look like she belonged here was enough reason for Vastra to abandon her observation of the lizards and approach the pair.

Slowly she rose, careful not to frighten the lizards, and moved away and towards the other girl. She had not yet met another girl her age before. “Hello.” The word came out cautiously, as though the wingless filly was a viper and not a fellow horse. Really, Vastra might not have approached even a viper with so much caution. She was learning about them slowly, the snakes and the creatures that shared her home - and which ones needed to be given a wider berth than the others. She had spent days, those listless lonely days without Castor, lying out in the sand and letting creatures learn about her as she learned about them.

So was this filly and the wolf part of those that she needed to avoid? Or one she could approach?

She hung back a little, just to be safe, but her eyes were bright with curiosity and crossed the distance for her.

That curious gaze shifted to the wolf, who seemed even more out of place in the desert with his white fur than the filly. “That yours?” She asked cautiously, aware now that she was more likely to come across someone that could speak the common tongue instead of that used by her family.