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She couldn't fly. Diego had once been told that he should try to find something good to say about every mare. He took it to heart, and he really did try, but he had the darnedest time trying to find something nice to say about Dia in a mood.

So for now he'd settle on praising the fact that she didn't have wings. If she had wings, she could have chased him beyond the treeline when he irritated her. Again. If she had wings, he probably would have had to fly for days, just to escape. But she didn't and he circled a clearing, laughing as he drifted lower. Seeing dark green leaves on a tree that might have been apple only improved his mood.

"The day can only get better," he called out to no one in particular as he trotted toward a particularly promising looking branch once he landed.

Bouncing. Bouncing was good. Bouncing was ... different. But good, all the same. He didn't see mares or ... not-mares bouncing very often. And he. He was fascinated by this one. No wings. Fluffy fetlocks. And that tail. That was not any kind of tail he'd seen before.

He couldn't help but smile as she bounced toward the tree, his muzzle following her up and down like he watched a bouncing ball. By the time she got to where he stood, he was practically prancing in place, himself. "You must be having a very good day to hop around like that." Up and down, hop, sproing. "Or else, maybe you ate a frog?" He grinned.

"Well." When he started that line of questioning, he didn't realize he was going to have to explain why he'd asked. It just seemed right at the time. Now? "Well. Maybe, if it's just a little frog, it might be in the grass you were eating and you wouldn't even notice until it was too late and you'd swallowed him. And then he'd bounce around in your stomach and make you bounce too." Not bad logic for something thought up on the fly, right?

He didn't mind alone, really. Not when it got him away from another lecture. Not if it meant he didn't have to dodge another hoof. "Alone isn't always bad. But you don't have to worry anymore." He beamed down at her. "You're not alone."

Oops. Had he forgotten to land again? He flew a half circle around her and landed where he wouldn't bump her with a wing or step on ...well. She didn't have a tail to step on, so to speak. "Diego. My name is Diego. Yours?"

Oops. Not the right reaction. He'd been going for silly, not sick. He never wanted to make any mare sick. Well. One, maybe, but never seriously. And that one was certainly not as interesting as this. There were apples, though. That was the reason he'd chosen this particular clearing, after all. Late apples, so they were on the small side and pretty picked over, but there were still a few good ones to be found.

"Rosalind," he echoed. "Rrrrrosalind." He rolled the r. "Rosalind is close to sounding like a rose. And you have flowers in your coat. On your coat," he observed in return. He was sharp like that. "And I am spotty," he agreed, standing up a little straighter.

Diego grinned and turned with her, though he didn't dance. Or bounce. He'd make one or both of them dizzy if he did that. "Roses are very nice," he offered in return. Eyes bright, he went on, perhaps less gracefully than he meant, "What are you, Rosalind?"

"Cerynei," he repeated. Carefully, because it wasn't a particularly easy word to say. It would make so much more sense to just say deer, but he didn't want to be rude. So he asked, instead, "Does it mean deer?"

And then she surprised him by nosebumping his wings. She liked them, did she? Well. He'd just give her a better look then. He took a step back and spread his wings a bit, so the colored ends really did stand out against his coat and darker feathers.

"A real rose has thorns," he said wisely. "I like the ones that are pretty but don't stick me in the nose." Folding his wings, he stepped forward again and bumped her side very carefully with his nose. "Like yours."

Diego blinked a few times. Mares didn't tend to stop talking around him. Well. Unless they were giving him the silent treatment in hopes that he'd leave. He looked a little worried by Rosa's sudden silence.

Ears tipped forward, he tried offering a smile. Smiles were harmless, weren't they? "Did I say something wrong, Rosalind? Sometimes my mouth says things before I can stop."

Someone else got lost in their thoughts like he did? Oh, this got better and better. Pleased and encouraged, Diego brushed past her on the way to a tree to pluck an apple down. Holding it carefully in his teeth, he worked it free of its twig, and brought it back to Rosalind, setting it by her feet. "When I am hungry, my mind wanders too." He flicked an ear as an afterthought. "You might like it. If the cerynei like apples too."