[I'm assuming Tor is with him and will be posting here too? Just based on the way you wrote your post.]

I lift my head as a bugle thunders over the skies. Grass tumbles from the corner of my mouth, where my lips did not have as strong a purchase on it. It's a pity, those blades will wither and die rather than nourish me, as I will surely not find them again.

Such needless waste is far from my mind as I have already set myself in motion. I am a black smear moving over this grey land. My tail trails behind me like a robe, though I am a far cry from a king. A jester is perhaps too lowly for me, though at times you can call me a fool and be not a liar. I am simply, ink.

I appear from the mists like the wraith of my ranking, abruptly there when a heart's beat earlier I was not. The Edge of the World has a way of swallowing you up; even now the mist curling in the wake of my motion is eddying back around me, trying to drag me back into the distance where I am not seen.

I flick my ears towards the strangers, bobbing my head in silent welcome. My posture is guarded and tall, suggesting an authority - it's not one I truly posses, but they need not know that. It should do enough to make them tell me why they have come and then perhaps I'll see how high my authority reigns.

The tawny beast bows his head and knee in turn, taking me by surprise. I am not accustomed to such displays towards me. I am like a dog slinking under the tables at a feast, sniffing out juicy scraps. Worse than that even, I am but the shadow of a cur.

It makes me simper slightly. The smile is a meager twist on my lips and a spark in my eyes, but I hope it will not portray the amusement in my heart, but rather the gratitude. Too often have I come across those who think their tongues need wagging as often as their lungs pull in air. I would wish my fate many a time upon those rude nuisances, worse than the crickets that sing from dawn 'til dusk. It's better that I'm not a unicorn, as I'm sure I'd have become very talented at the taking of tongues by now.

Either way, I hope whatever expression I show, has covered up my initial response of shock. Likely the brute's head was still to the dirt then.

He rises with a shuffle of wings and a curtain of mane. I look at him, lips pursed in thought, and think that he is surely a lion. In color, hair and regal manner this stallion is much like the golden felines. I would be fool to regard him so highly though, when he's yet to flex his claws or bare his teeth.

I nod my head low and slow in reply to the words spoken. It would be unwise to take that as an acceptance though, as I do not make to turn my body away from his path, letting him in, nor to stand beside him as a new brother. I wonder just what rights I have in judging him, but I know this much. Though the herd is in need of bodies, it is only the able bodied we have use for. We need lions, not dogs that will roll onto their backs at the first who approach. Though I appreciate his manners, I need to know that he has more than bowing recited - after all, if he would bend a knee to one like me, what would he do to our ferocious enemies, I wonder wryly, piss himself?

I hope not, I do like him.

I throw my tail around my right side then with a sudden shift of my legs ad a wet slap of the heaping pile of black hair. I dip my stance, haunches tight with movement as I pull the coiled strings about like a brush. Ink swells from their tips and splashes onto the misty earth. I twist and turn the fluid, shaping it to my mind's eye and my heart's will. I ask him in the only way I can, just what he is worth and what he has to offer, by painting.

I illustrate first the lion I consider him, teeth snapping at the throats of our foes. Is he a warrior, a protector? I glance sidelong at him, curious to see his reaction.
I let that image shatter into small droplets before rebuilding him as a dog, sly and sneaky as I. Will he prefer the shadows to the sun, stealth to the war cries? I wonder.
I paint for him each service he would provide for us in turn, each time pointedly looking to him for his inclination.

He says he will serve. I want to know how.

The mare at Kaj's side has been curiously quiet. I have been wondering if she means to join as well, since she smells of the wilds, but she'd given me her answer as she bows out amid my questioning. I watch her go with a turn of my eyes and little else. I have my lion to worry about still.

Just as the girl departs another comes to replace her, though this one draws from my side of the land, his face familiar. Aaron, protector of the Edge, brother to Kiara and son of Solstice. I can sympathize with this poor stallion that has fared worse than most of us in these trouble times. I can imagine his grief and anger at having his family torn from his sides; truthfully though I cannot, my family long lost and since forgotten. I don't think I feel such care or passion for anyone, even myself at times. I know that it should be a hard fate, and I can at least respect his level head as he endures.

I appreciate his support as he comes to rest at my side. Though I think I've since decided that Kaj is not a threat and will be a great addition to the Edge, I would be a fool to trust so easily so quick. Besides, he can take Kaj now.

My tail finishes its work and lays limp at my sides. The ground around me has been splattered black and shines with the wet. I pay it no mind, well accustomed to it. In the process of my asking Kaj had given me two clear responses. A warrior, he seems most liken to and comfortable with, and a crafter perhaps. He's in luck then that Aaron, a long-tested warrior here, has arrived.

I bow my head as Aaron introduces himself and begin to retreat so I may depart from this conversation. I would leave the stranger, now a brother, in the capable hooves of one more suited for asking and answering. It is better that be befriends a fellow he will be ranked with. Aaron can train him and teach him in ways that I could never understand.

The weight of my duty has been displaced. I interrupted the intruder and made them kin. Nothing else in my job description requires social interaction, so I fade back into the mists much the way I had come. I give a lasting look to Kaj, proffering him a smile of reassurance. Welcome it tells him, my eyes bright in this din.