He doesn't have time to answer the cream-colored girl. An ear flicks back and the pegasus turns his head to see the approach of a small, bay woman. Tarian is mildly surprised that someone was willing to play along with this little charade and there is a flicker of mild amusement in his eyes before he turns his head towards Xii and Kukka.
How could he think that? It takes everything in him not to grin. He can feel the smile itching on the corners of his dark lips but Tarian has had a decade of schooling himself and keeping his emotions in check. "I doubt there is much left afterward to tell anything," the stallion quips back rather darkly.
There is a small gnawing sense of guilt in the back of his mind for the filly. The joke will end soon enough but there may be a lesson for the girl to find. She is entirely too bright in the literal, shining sense of the word. If the worst thing she encounters on her first diplomatic mission is Tarian, he considers himself a gentler introduction to how the outside world could be. There were far worse things in Beqanna (and the outside realms) to stumble upon than him.
The interest on his face when he looks back to the bay mare is genuine and a wry smile curves on his lips. "I had not heard about the witches," Tarian says to this newfound compatriot. He knew Tephra as the land of the sleeping volcano and that of the most inhabitants seemed to keep to themselves. It was a quiet country. He hasn't traveled extensively in Beqanna and decides to share the wild rumors he's heard with the trio with a roguish smile. "What about the sea monsters in Ischia? The ghosts haunting the North?"
Looking to the long-eared mare, his smaller ones prick attentively while he considers something. He still thinks that she shows potential for Loess - (her wings certainly help that decision) - and so instead of telling Xii his name, Tarian asks: "has something sent you searching for it?"
The dragons that attacked Loess are still burning fresh in his mind. If she was fleeing trouble, he'd rather not bring it home.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though we are not now that strength
which in old days moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.
@[xii]