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Tenoch had never seen a real horse before. He’d seen pictures of a horse, tv horses, cartoon horses drawn in children’s books that chased cows into old women that’d swallowed flies, but a real, live, horse? Tall — fast — their noses were large and their eyes were wide — and Tenoch didn’t mean to pull his Blaster on the stunning creature, it was instinctive, espescially when his dear housemate had clearly been kidnapped by the beast!!

And Tenoch could not, for one, take a single other friend being kidnapped; not on Earth or otherwise!!

It was much to his stunned surprise, mid long woodsy walk, that the horse who’d saddled his sister in arms turned and fled with her atop it, and all his thoughts of running off questions and alarms via comtech gave way to a foot chase that ended with him tripping over a rotting log, straight into the dirt and ever growing piles of seasonal leaves, where he remained sprawled ——- and staring wide eyed back at approaching hooves.

Such ominous clopping from such long legs…

"I--you--me!? Why am I -- How about you, and what you are doing Naeria!"

Yes, that made sense, was completely logical even, for all that he felt he was spitting roughly chopped words while scrambling back and looking into the wide, wide, wide eyes of an herbivore. A very large herbivore, with very sturdy hooves, and haunches, and --- what were they called? Flank steaks? Yes, he'd read about it, very large flank steaks and rump roasts...

And Naeria of all people was atop it. Her, apparently.

Not sounding at all like a kidnapped damsel in a children's tale, but very much like an affronted comrade in charge, whom he'd somehow upset!! He'd never heard Naera yell a moment in his life, not that he could remember, and there she sat, proud and tall and eying him like a troublemaker...

"Are you alright!?" a hissed bit of panic, and if he could find it in his mind to holster his useless weapon, he could also find it in himself to scrabble up and stand, slowly -- much more slowly because his every movement seemed to earn a heave or flattened ear flick and he had to remember very well that he was not just facing his friend -- Oh no, he was also facing his friends friend, which reared and stomped and made chuffing sounds as though the creature were very unimpressed with him.

"That is -- I mean to ask -- to say?! That I would know better if I'd ever been formally introduced to your -- to your friend...our friend? Honestly, Naeria..." as if all his confusion could be shoved into a sigh and glance. He wasn't sure if he should be apologizing to Naeria, or her friend, or -- Well he certainly knew not to be blasting anything. Yes, that he knew very well.

So matter of fact, though Tenoch would've called what they had been doing prior to his interruption more of a run, than a walk, except maybe for a horse those were one in the same? He certainly knew his own gait was often beyond a humans, it made navigating the crowds an annoyance -- Maybe that was the horses reasoning for taking such walks so far off the beaten path with his friend atop her, horses did have very long legs after all, they were, in fact, all legs insofar as he could see.

The more Tenoch looked, the more he caught all the little micro-expressions, every time an ear flicked back in agitation, or a hoof lifted to stamp at the foliage before Portabellas tall form -- he was reminded just how many legs there were, and that the horse -- Portabella -- was hyper aware of his presence there; infinitely moreso for having interrupted their 'walk' so rudely.

"It's nice to meet you Portabella, my name is Itztenoch..." stilted softness, as he wondered whether or not that the right thing to do? If Naeria spoke to her friend casually, or there was a trick to it? The soft shusshing and gentle clucks seemed like some foreign tongue when combined with all that petting. How Naeria could stand to pet portabella at all? The horses whole form looked coarse, and yet she almost seemed to enjoy petting her. Even if the only soft spot on the entire body looked to be the large breathing holes on set within Portabellas long face, with the wide eyes that swallowed the scenery and reflected everything.

"I should like to know how to apologize to her also....should there be more of the shushing? She is...is she secretly a mushroom?" an that thought was odd, he couldn't imagine why it struck him -- maybe it was the occasional glances at the others winding gardens full of healing herbs and yawning logs full of fungi farms...maybe it was all his lingering thoughts on the seeds snatched from that ill fated mission to a robot-filled fantasy land.

Horses were surely mammals.

Maybe...

He wouldn't be the one to assume.

"You never know Naeria, Fungi take many forms and the spotted sort do seem to resemble -- ah -- certain horses, right?" an attempt at a joke, notched, fired; hedging on hopeful that it would land. Though he was unsure if mushrooms actually resembled any known horses, or vice versa. He understood though, the want for some things to simply be literal instead of figurative -- nodding along as he watched the want slip past her gaze, a feeling he shared.

The literalness hardly mattered though, the name was beautiful to Naeria, and Portabella heeded it with ease. So she must have liked it enough to listen, even if she couldn't've said so clearly. Sometimes all a name needed was a good connotation, or a warm feeling, rather than a deeper meaning.

"You're sure?" he would've liked to try, the project to him seemed fascinating, the connection between an animal and one of their own all the more fascinating still. Naerias hobbies splayed between plentiful, thoughtful, necessary. Tenoch swallowed something bitter for the welling of inadequacy in the pit of his stomach over that. Everyone was doing things save him, making friends, pinning goals dead center in the middle of target boards; naming horses after edible fungi and romping through fields with them.

Tenoch wanted that.

Not with a horse, maybe, but with something? Someone? His feeling on that were too fuzzy to be worth poking at. So instead he watched, stole the inches closer as instructed, and reached his hand out to touch --- "I wonder if things would be easier without language. Visuals are better, sometimes, simpler even?"

Cautious, his ears trained to her while his eyes were on the large blinking creature before him. Portabella hardly seemed to mind Naeria stepping back, eager for equal amounts of attention along her strong neck and the flat of her face. She'd made a friend, a partner, this -- Portabella seemed not at all like the pets humans were so fond of.

"It's amazing that you've managed this---oh--she's not rough to the touch at all," a small delight and spark of surprise, Tenoch splayed the flat of his hand across the bridge of Portabellas wide nose, tentative at first, before scratching gently, before becoming enthralled at how *soft* her nose was. The hair was far more sleek than coarse, cleanly groomed and only slightly wiry. "Hello Portabella...it's nice to meet you."