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"Nomming you tail?" At the very idea, Corsant adopted a somewhat confused expression, peering around the filly for confirmation as to the state of her tail before laughing once again. "Why would I want to nom your tail? It's all hair, nothing else, so 'specially if I was a mean-Soquili eating Soquili I'd be all like, 'PTOOEY, there's nothing but hair here!' you know? Hair isn't good for anyone, it just gets caught in your mouth and makes you splutter."

Having imparted this important knowledge, he grinned and nodded his head, pleased to know that he hadn't scared his new friend away with his looking-like-someone-that-ate-meat. He'd been told before that he should never fault someone for being afraid of him at first glance, because a lot of Soquilis that looked like him WERE bad, and kids that were afraid of him might be just listening to their moms and dads that told them to be careful. They couldn't know just from seeing his horns that he was a good guy who came from a good family and never ate meat...though he supposed that the fact that some of his family DID eat meat could be held against all of them.

Not that it was really the same as being a mean kalona. He'd asked once why some members of the family ate meat and others didn't, and he'd been told it had to do with their dye-jest-ive tracks, whatever those were; apparently some of the family NEEDED meat to stay healthy, and some of them could get by on vegetables 'n things. But even those that ate meat never ate Soquili, not even nibbles, so they were safe to Soquili, too. He would vouch for ALL of them, even his scary-looking older siblings. Well, scary-looking Lessia and Anthone; Pascale didn't look scary at ALL, which made sense cause she wasn't scary.

But then, he wasn't scary either, which was why he was able to have a fun time making this new friend without her running off and hiding from him!

"So you're a hider, then? I guess I can see how you'd blend in, 'specially in the fall and late summer. You kinda look like sunshine through the trees." This was pronounced after a thoughtful examination; the idea of hiding from danger being so strange he had to try and think out the practical elements. But one element of her plan troubled him, and he had to ask, "But what about winter? You're not white, not at all, and in the winter there's not really much as bright as you. The trees always seem to look sad and faded, you don't look at ALL sad and faded. What would happen if you met a bad guy in winter, and he was looking right at you?"

Thinking about it, Corsant was honestly troubled. What WOULD happen if she was seen by a bad guy in winter, especially a bad guy with wings? She was small, and would have to flounder through the snow (leaving a trail, even!) while the baddie could maybe fly, definitely move faster, and be lead right to her by a trail in the snow!

His young face all seriousness, he told her, "It would be very sad if you got caught by a bad guy, not just for you but EVERYONE. You should be careful..."

Corsant still wasn't sure what he thought of the idea of hiding, even if Mari DID say there were big stallions to protect her. Sure, it was great to have someone to protect you; he knew that his papa 'n mama would be the first to protect him or his siblings if they needed help, along with his older siblings, their grandparents...suffice to say, it was a long list. But you never knew when you might encounter a baddie, and it might not be when there was someone close enough to help. That was why it was important to be able to get away, or yell for help, or do SOMETHING.

So he still wasn't convinced, although he did have to concede that having big stallions around to protect you was a good plan. In fact, at the mention of big stallions he brightened again, nodding his head in agreement. "I know whatchu mean; did you see my Papa a little bit ago? He was the big stallion with me, and he's REALLY big. Like, so big that my head only almost comes up to his tummy." Rethinking that statement, he was quick to clarify, "But I'm growing! When I'm fully-big, I'll probably be that big, too!"

He liked that idea; being big would mean he'd be able to go off on his own whenever he wanted, and be able to protect other people instead of needing to be watched himself. Plus, when he was big his wings would work and he'd be able to fly! That, and he'd be super-fast...yeah, being grown up would be awesome.

Distracted from the dire discussion that had led them to the topic, he asked, "Is your papa a big stallion, too? I bet he'd pr'tect you."

((*cough* Corsant's father also has leather wings, it's his grandpa that is the wind XD ))
In Corsant's eyes, 'big' probably had a more specific definition than Mariasha's original 'in her eyes' thought. No, for Corsant, 'big' implied BIGNESS, not just bigger-than-himness, because when he was only a little colt almost EVERYTHING was bigger than him! Someday, though, he'd be bigger than most of it, and if he'd gone through foalhood thinking that whatever it was was big, he'd be all confused when he was big himself, because what would he do if something that he'd thought was massive now seemed tiny? It would be horribly confusing, and he didn't like to be confused.

No, 'big' was on a par with bigger-than-average in his mind; seeing his grandfather Guilian beside his father had been an example in the difference between bigger-than-him and big. Grandpa was bigger than him; Papa was BIG.

So thinking about it, he guessed that Mariasha's papa would fall into the 'bigger-than-him' category. He didn't know what wiry mean, but if it mean the opposite of muscly he had to be very much not big. Then again, she had said that he didn't have wings at all, and Mari seemed very small to him, so it only made sense that he parents would be smaller than normal (his version of normal), too. He'd never met any foals before her that weren't his brother and sister, but seeing how big kalona were compared to his wind grandfather seemed to imply that they were just big in general.

Though he supposed that bigness didn't necessarily matter when it came to protection, as her staunch defense of her parents' protective capabilities indicated. She was probably right; parents tended to like to keep their kids safe. No doubt her parents, like his parents, had started to let her go off on her own only recently, because it was easier to keep an eye on her when she was within visual range...

"It's really good to have parents, isn't it? I mean, they do so many nice things for us, and keep us safe and stuff! My parents are really cool; they're both big, but I don't know what that's going to mean for me when I get big. My Papa is really big, and my Mama's papa is HUGE, but Papa's papa is a lot smaller. He's got feathered wings instead of our wings, and he's a lot littler than my papa, which is funny; I don't look like him, but I MIGHT be small when I get big." At the idea, he wrinkled his nose; he dearly wanted to be big, and the idea of being a midget was somewhat depressing. It was nice that Mariasha could be confident about being small; he doubted he'd be able to blend in EVER, seeing as how he'd never be as small as a mare anyway.

Though at her comment, his grin gave way to a somewhat puzzled expression, his head canting to one side as he asked, "What's an Oos-dya? Is it some kind of bug?" He didn't think he'd be THAT big!

Huh. So Oos-dyas were little ponies, hrm? He'd never heard of anything like that before, and actually wasn't quite sure what a 'pony' even was, but from the sound of it they were like Soquili, only they stopped growing really early. That must be really rough for them, to be so small compared to everyone else...though that might be why he'd never seen one before! If they were that little, they probably tried to avoid the big Soquili, 'cause otherwise they might get stepped on and smooshed or something. Especially if they only came up to his Papa's knees...

But he came back to the point at being called silly, startling a bit, then laughing. "Yeah, maybe I am silly, but that's what kids are s'posed to be, isn't it? I mean, when you're a grown-up there's a lot less time to be silly because you have to find food and fight baddies and get married and things like that, which means not much time to be silly, But I don't think it's silly to think that I might not be SUPER-big, that's 'gentics' in action!"

He was very proud of that word, having worked a very long time to master the pronunciation. And being the good guy that he was, he was even able to explain it! "See, maybe I WILL be big, but I might be little, cause my grandpa is small. So even though my Papa is big, he has a little thing in him that says 'you should be small' and when he had kids, that thing went from him to us! So now we don't know if the thing that says 'you should be small' will win over the thing that says 'you should be big' or not, and we won't until we stop growing."

Beaming at the beauty of his own explanation, he continued with even more enthusiasm, "So that means that YOU might now be super small when you grow up, either! You might be, um, wiry like your dad! It all depends on how your gentics work."

Himself, he kinda hoped she'd be wiry, if just so he could see what that looked like!

Whoops; there seemed to have been a miss-communication somewhere in the chain of conversation, and Corsant was pretty sure it was his fault. He didn't know why, but it seemed that a lot of the time, what he was thinking in his head came out of his mouth sounding kinda like what he meant, but not quite, so he got responses lots of times that made his head go to one side and go 'huh?' because it's not what he meant when he said what he said. Apparently sometimes what he said came out so not-like-he-meant-it that it was possible to make the person he said it to MAD. Not that he'd ever actually made anyone mad that he knew of, because Mariasha was the first person he'd ever met that wasn't his family and his family knew he didn't mean the thing that made them mad. Mostly. His brother and sister didn't count; they seemed to LIKE thinking he meant to be mean, even when he wasn't. Tattle-tales.

Though that wasn't relevant at the moment. His papa had told him that he needed to be careful what he said, and if he said something that came out wrong or even made someone mad, he needed to be 'sponsible and make it right, either by clarifying or apologizing. And if he tried clarifying and it didn't work, then he was supposed to just stop and apologize, so he didn't make it worse.

He was glad that so far he'd only had things come out wrong so far; it would be a bummer to make Mari mad.

"Well, you don't have to be serious ALL the time when you're a grown-up, a'course; but it's easier to be silly when you're a foal, because you don't have much of any 'sponsibilities. You can be silly as an adult; my papa and mama can be silly, and my grandpas are VERY silly, and they've got lots of family and stuff." Family history, simple version. "It would be boring to be serious all the time, but it would be awfully hard, too, don'cha think? I mean, my face always wants to smile, so I don't think I'd do very well being serious all the time."

He actually tried to look serious as he spoke there, the muscles fighting it the whole 30 seconds or so that he managed to look stern before breaking back into his trademark grin. Anyone who thought he'd manage to be serious just because he was an adult was delusional. Having proved that point, he burst out laughing, brushing back his choppy blond mane as he did so. Eating hair was bleh, after all. "You're totally right, Mari; but you still have to 'sponsible as an adult, even if you have guards and stuff. We don't have guards here; my mama and papa keep us safe alone. But they're big and have pointy teeth, and my mama used to be all RAWR before she learned that being mean was wrong. Now she's nice, but I bet she could beat a baddie if she tried."

He'd actually never seen his parents have to be scary, largely by design. Neither Antony nor Loveless felt it was appropriate for their children to see OR experience violence at such a young age. When they were older, they would learn to defend themselves and to use their natural physical advantages, but that wouldn't come until much later. They didn't need to see the meat that Loveless and Lanzo ate be brought down. For now, the parents wanted them to be foals, pure and simple.

And that had to show in Corsant. He might have horns and he might have wings, but HE certainly didn't know what they were supposed to do! Well, he did in theory, but not really.

At the offered bet, he grinned and shook his head, amused at the very thought. "I would bet, but it's kinda silly because you're prob'ly right. I COULD be small, but it's a lot more true that I'll prob'ly be big. So I'd need to get a whole bunch of apples and drag them around to find you so I could give them all away, and then I'd have no apples."" A simplified tragedy, but a tragedy all the same. After all, what greater prize could there be for a foal of his age than food?

But apples aside, this was an informative conversation. "So wiry is when you're a stick? Does that mean you don't bend, or you break easy? Or that you're really skinny, or very knobbly. How can a Soquili be knobbly, anyway?" Having never heard the word 'curvy' himself, he was at a loss for the comparison and was having a great deal of fun imaging a Soquili made entirely out of twigs. Probably not practical, but incredibly funny. It almost made him wish he would be wiry when he was grown...except if he was made of twigs, he'd likely be broken in no time, given how clumsy he was! Well, not clumsy, really. He wasn't clumsy. He was just...good at hitting things. Completely different.

At least Mari was philosophical about being little. If you weren't sure if you wanted to be something but had to be it anyway, it was smart to have a good attitude. That would be like him being upset he was a colt; he could hardly change that, even if he wanted to. Which he DEFINITELY didn't, thanks much! "You're very practical, did you know that?"

Corsant was utterly fascinated by this conversation, if truth be told. Talking to someone from a different family was interesting, educational, and extraordinarily fun, more fun than he ever would have thought possible when all that was happening was standing around and talking. He was a very physical foal as a rule, and it could be a great challenge to make him take naps or go to bed on time, stand still and eat dinner, or any other good but dull things that parents always wanted their foals to do.

But it wasn't often he got this sort of chance, and he was going to enjoy it while he could: even if that meant crossing wires almost every other sentence.

"Oh, I know about sharing, but sharing's not sharing if you don't have anything left, is it? Then it's just giving. And giving can be fun, especially if the person you give to really likes the present, but I don't know if I would want to give away all my apples." A bit blunt, perhaps, but Corsant was very honest. Too honest, sometimes, but what could he do? Tact was on the list of important qualities he needed to learn, but it was slow going. Very slow. "But I'd share with you! You're nice."

This was accompanied by a big grin, one that became a round-eyed, round mouthed look of intense interest as she explained the concept of back baskets. It sounded very efficient for carrying cool rocks and things, though he didn't know how he could move his wings right if there was a basket on them. More importantly... "What's a human? And why would they put things on my back?"

It was true: The colt had no idea what a human was, and had never even heard the word before. His family had no business with them, never went near them (at least not that he himself was aware of) and consequently: Ignorance. "Are they like Oos-dyas, too?"

Though in true foal-fashion, curiosity went out the window when faced with the prospect of a secret. His eyes even rounder, he listened with bated breath and even silence as she confessed that she was here without knowledge of these mysterious guards OR her parents. It was very very wicked, and very shocking, and he was absolutely amazed. "Wow...THAT'S SO COOL!" Unable to contain his excitement at the prospect, his voice rose to a pronounced volume before he tamped it back down again, trying to match his own tones to the hush of secrecy. "That's so cool, that you're not scared or anything, Mari! But you shouldn't be scared anyway, while you're with me I'LL protect you." Immediately he puffed out his chest and did his best to look imposing, explaining, "It's right for stallions to protect mares in need. Though mares can also protect stallions in need, my mama says."

And he bet his mama could, too, but he'd never seen it. Papa was never in need, after all! Though Loveless might argue otherwise.

His protecting her was undermined a bit by her observation, accurate as it was, about his own clumsiness, and he let the air out of his chest with a sigh. "Yeah, I probably am knobbly. I think it's because I'm not full grown yet. My legs are growing faster than the rest of me, so they want to go faster than I can manage, I think. But I'll catch up, and they'll grow even more, and then I'll be all in 'portion! And I'll be just regular strong, and you'll be wiry, and we'll be AWESOME!"

He was pretty sure she had said she'd be a stick because she was wiry before, but he wasn't going to argue that fact. Maybe she was right, and either way, this was fun. "But I think we're awesome now, too. What're you going to do while you're off exploring on your own?"

Corsant was actually familiar with the Look, or at least with the sentiments the Look was supposed to convey. He had parents, after all, and had seen the Look, usually directed by his mother at his father but on a few rare occasions the other way around. It typically meant that the Looker felt that the Lookee was being ridiculous, or behaving in some fashion that they shouldn't be, and often resulted in the Lookee turning red. Well, Papa turned red; his mother was black, so whether or not she turned red was entirely speculative. But she probably did.

So Corsant knew what it meant when he got the Look, though it surprised him more than anything. It was very strange, and he had no idea what he'd done to merit it! Silly Mari.

And her explanation did nothing to clarify that confusion, the foal actually sporting a puzzled frown by the end of it. "No, you're backwards. Sharing is when you let someone else play with your things, or eat some of your food. Giving a gift is something when you want someone else to have something, because you like them, or you find something they'd think is net, or it's their birthday or something. That's a gift; giving something when you get something back is TRAVING. I've traved with my brother before." He could be quite magnanimous when the situation called for, and her confusion merited such consideration. Trading was common, and so was giving gifts, and so was sharing, so he could see how she got them mixed up.

Besides, that was nowhere near as exciting as the information about humans. At Mari's demonstration of their walking style, his eyes and mouth became perfect Os, and she had barely set down her front legs before he had to try it himself...failing miserably, of course.

"Owww...that seems like a silly way to walk. Don't they worry about falling over with their front legs up in the air like that?" Making a face, Corsant rubbed his bashed front legs with his wings, not crying at all because he was tough and didn't cry about bashes, even if they REALLY hurt. He was still impressed, though, both at the concept and at Mari's performance. "You're good at walking like that, but I don't think you could go very fast like that, even if you could stay up a lot longer. And don't they get cold if they've got no hair? I've never seen anything with no hair...WAIT!" Trying to picture a human (which looked a lot like a bald short Soquili, balanced on its back legs with a tuft of hair between its ears), he shortly thought of the snakes that he'd seen in the woods and brightened up. "Do they have scales? Scales instead of hair? Are they like lizards, then? Because lizards can't talk either, I don't think, they just make scurrying noises...I wish I had a secret language, that would be so cool! Don't you think? Because then you wouldn't have to lower your voice if you had a secret, you could just use your secret language!"

Calm and collected, he was not. His own enthusiasm, spurred on by Mari's growing animation, was turning him into a hummingbird of energy, displayed in little hopes and flutters every now and then. "Wouldn't that be AWESOME?"

Though the awesomeness of it all took a blow when she voiced her concern about his size, causing him to frown in turn. "Well, I'm biggger'n you, aren't I? Maybe I can't fight a giant Soquili, but if a baddie came around, I could distract him and draw him away and stuff while you hid! Because I'd be moving and quick, and they'd want to follow me while you used your powers to blend in and hide." A brilliant plan, if he did say so himself. He DIDN'T say that his papa or mama would probably show up to help HIM in turn, even though he knew they would, because that would ruin the thought of him being the protector and he wanted her to feel confident in him!

And her plan sounded like fun! He was totally willing to protect her for the duration. "Wow, really? I've never seen any of those things!" And didn't know what a beach was, actually, but who cared about that? He had hours in which to play, why not explore the world in it? "I've only seen the river and the woods and stuff, but it would be SO COOL to see more than that! And my papa told me I can play by myself today with no watching, as long as I got back by suppertime...we could see those things by suppertime, right?"

After all, it was only almost lunch!