Star on the Falls [Balian]

With the vantage point the stallion held, he’d spotted the tall stallion below long before the winged friend with the dun had spotted Taliesyn, and as he watched the other horse pick his way out of sight up the steep trail, he confirmed to himself that the other horse was one of the High Kind of horses. It seemed there were factions among all creatures, those who had a higher sentience, and those who had remained feral. He’d even seen wolves that just weren’t the same as even the plainest timber wolf here on Boreas and Auster. There was a certain spark they lacked.

Curiously, though, he recognized the stallion’s scent as the wind twisted a quick sniff past his nostrils, and his upper lip twitched briefly in a slight flehmen response, though not in distaste. The stallion was younger, healthy, and no longer smelled like the pack Taliesyn had caught whiff of in the west some time ago.

The other came into view and stopped short, staring. That reaction was understandable. To any who ever paid attention to the myths and legends, Taliesyn resembled a shaggy Unicorn, vibrantly white and shimmering under his glowing light. The younger stallion wasn’t the first to react this way, and he wouldn’t be the last.

“Good evening. How goes it?”

His rumbling voice was gentle, and wholly companionable as his neck arched in a brief head-bow, head tilted to regard the other horse with one vibrant teal eye. On his withers Wangui shifted to better watch the proceedings, wondering if there’d end up being a mad chase, though there were no mares to really encourage an altercation or even friendly show-off sparring match. Maybe one day.

The last horses he’d encountered were Kamilah and Acacia. One had a dubious backstory paired with ambition that he’d decided, having not seen her since, had been false words and fleeting desire to lead, and the second was young, barely more than a filly—though, really, neither lady had been much more than a filly – thrust into a wild world with a panicky, flighty nature. How were they, she and her friend?

He shifted his weight to the other hind leg, ears swiveling as Isolde dropped from the sky to perch on a nearby rock, adjusting her wings neatly and regarding the other horse and his friends with an interested golden eye.

Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think