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Allarian lay unmoving, a great grey lump blending into his surroundings; at first, second, and maybe even third (if the light was dim) glance, he could pass as a boulder, or at least a large rock. It was an unremarkable skill, but the fact of the matter remained: Allarian was good at being still. It was a necessary thing, when one liked to spend time in the company of things which were notoriously skittish. Today, it was dragonflies; they were a particular favorite of his because of their grace and speed: two qualities which made them hard to observe.

So, he lay amongst the tall grass just beyond the marsh, observing the rapid back and forth of the many dragonflies who called the marsh home. It was his hope that by lying still enough, he could get one or two to come closer, or possibly even land on him. So far, that was proving a futile hope.

Still, he could be patient...

Allarian didn't know whether or not he should be appalled or not. He had been so careful, easing himself into this marsh, scouting out the perfect observation post, and integrating himself into the landscape. He had spent over an hour being immobile, hoping to make the dragonflies comfortable with his presence, and for what? For another Soquili to come skipping along and completely ruin the still of the marsh. If Allarian were the teeth-gritting type, he would be grinding his right now.

Still, he wasn't ready to give up on this observation experiment yet, so he remained still and boulder-like, watching the intruder with silent grouchiness.

Though after a few minutes of Soquili watching, he was glad he hadn't acted too hastily. He'd thought that the stallion had stirred up the insects and was driving them away, but upon further examination...the insects were actually attracted to the stallion! Fascinating!

Allarian had been observing the other stallion closely, his photographic memory taking down every nuance of each interaction. He'd never spent time around the Kawani, so he didn't know there was such a thing as 'writing'; if he did, perhaps he would regret his hooves, which were simply unable to hold a pen. But having never heard of such things, he was content to make do with his mind; it had always been a wonderful place to store his thoughts and observations, and he rarely forgot anything. Even anything minor.

He had often been accused by his brothers of being emotionless, that he would be willing to let them be stung to death by bees or eaten up by ants if it meant he could get more data. He had protested, but secretly wondered at the back of his mind if they weren't right. There were a lot of Soquili out there, after all...

Later, he would be able to set their minds at ease, however. He was watching the other stallion capering about, both fascinated and furious at the way things had worked out when the other stallion fell into a boggy place. Allarian was hardly surprised; it was a marsh, after all. But a moment later, he heard the cry from the other stallion, and he knew he had to do something. Abandoning his 'rock' disguise, he made his way rapidly but carefully through the boggy areas over to the stallion. "Hey, are you-oh." A quick glance showed him that the other stallion was apparently being strangled, and Allarian leaned in grab the ribbon and take the pressure off of his neck.

Well, that had been a bit...odd. Allarian had only meant to relieve the pressure and allow the stallion to get himself out of the bog, but the stallion had seemed so shocked and scared that Allarian had ended up leading him all the way out past the boggy parts to solid ground. At that point, Allarian figured that whatever nerves had gotten into the little stallion must be gone, and he stepped back away from him. "No problem, you looked like you needed help. But are you ok? You seem a bit...jumpy."

A bit blunt, perhaps, but all of Allarian's stock of subtlety was reserved for insects.

Well, fine now was good enough for Allarian; having performed the perfunctory duty of lending a helping hoof and asking how the coolorful stallion was feeling, there was nothing more needed or expected of Allarian, according to his understanding of basic social convention. Well, aside of returning the introduction. "I'm Allarian. How have you been attracting all of those butterflies?"

No sense in being brief when there were questions to get answered!

“A flower…fascinating. You’d think that the motion and movement of, well, you would be enough to counteract any sense of attraction from the flower; do you always use the same type of flower? Is there anything unique about the type of flower you use? I’m not really a flower Soquili, so I can’t say if I’ve seen your ornament anywhere before. I really ought to start paying better attention to those things, though.” Allarian had gone into full scientist mode, studying Zorian and his floawer with an almost clinical detachment. Indeed, the last part of his conversation was almost meant more for himself than for Zorian; after all, he liked studying bugs, and flowers tended to be very important to bugs!

But he was being rude, he realized, and he shook his head to file the questions away for a bit later. “I might have to try that.”

It always baffled Allarian when other Soquili seemed surprised or confused by his interests. As he saw things, bugs were the most fascinating things in existence, period. The weird thing was that more people didn't see that; they thought of insects as nuisances at best, something to kill at best. They only saw the insects as annoying, something to ignore or destroy. Much as he might like to think otherwise, it was patently clear that he was in the minority when it came to liking bugs.

Though at least this stallion didn't seem completely off-put by Allarian's particular interest. "Well, that's very nice of you; I wouldn't mind taking it to study, if you're sure you wouldn't miss it. I wouldn't want to deprive you of your butterflies by taking it." Then he paused, considering the last question for a long moment. "I would say we can be friends, yes." What a different question for him to be asked; no one ever wanted to be friends with him!