o dark dark dark. they all go into the dark; any

[Wrynn]

Oh look, oh my star is fading

When the creature responds to her, you might as well have told her that the underworld had burst open and all the dead foals would be spilling out back into the world. She is joyful, ecstatic even. If she were human, she'd clap her hands and run in circles.

But (thankfully) she's equine, and so she settles for a peal of ringing, bell-like laughter, an expression of pure glee. Her eyes, rainbow-clouds, shift from color to color as she smiles at the creature. "El lo to you too." she says with a smile that would be infectious to a horse, but probably means nothing to the creature that stands before her.

The creature's success with those two syllables makes her realize for the first time that it may not be able to talk so easily. She is quiet then, for a moment, simply watching it as her brain tracks back. Her thoughts catch on the trills, the things she'd mistaken for being something else, for being perhaps simple breathing, or the kind of unconscious gurgling that seems to be the hallmark of most living creatures.

She looks at the creature, still remarkably without fear. "You didn't learn to talk, did you?" she asks, realizing almost immediately that it's a foolish question. How could it answer her if it couldn't even understand the question? How could she ever really talk to it if they could barely communicate?

The voices in her head are silent on the subject.

But in her infancy (recent as it was) she'd not known language either, and had found that there were other, better ways to communicate. And so softly, gently, watching for any kind of negative reaction from her new friend (and yes, she does consider even this strange creature a friend) she reaches out with a tender muzzle, aiming for a gentle touch on the creature's armored shoulder.

wrynn