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Guirien couldn't have gotten a better distraction if he'd ordered one from a catalog. True, he had come out here to get away from his overwhelming bitterness and try to come to grips with his irrational upset, but he had also needed to come to grips with what his own family was. Disappointment, resentment and anger mixed with love, gratitude, and affection; with all honesty, he envied Azimene the ability to be so open and warm and matter-of fact about her family. He doubted he could sum up his own family so succinctly, and he didn't have ghosts and raccoons mixed up in his! Towards his father, he felt nothing; he had long since given up worrying over a father who had abandoned his own foals. Towards his mother, he felt anger and disgust; to his brothers, ambivalent antipathy. His aunt and uncle inspired the strongest affection, as did their children, his cousins, but that happy family unit was the recipient of his deepest feelings of jealousy.

His grandparents inspired a bevy of mixed emotions within the stallion; it was from his maternal grandparents that his mother had learned her licentious and loose ways, so on one hand Guirien resented them for setting in motion his current situation. On the other hand, they were both loving and affectionate Soquilis, his grandfather in particular, and he had met them on several occasions. His grandfather, Guilian, actually made a point of keeping up to date and involved in his children and grandchildren's lives, and Guirien had met him at his uncle's and even been taken on a day trip by him. Guilian was a pleasant and likable sort, and Guirien felt mostly affection for the stallion...but it was all so confusing! The comparison also did Guirien's mother no comparisons; if Guilian could keep up with ten kids and their offspring, the least Amary could do was manage three!

Guirien's jaw clenched involuntarily yet again as he thought about his family, but as soon as he realized it he wrenched his thoughts back to the present case and situation. It wasn't fair to Azimene to space out on her, and hardly ideal for him to use HER tales of interest as a gateway back to his own depression. No thanks, not interested. So he shook off the negative, resolving that he wouldn't think about it until he was ready and ALONE. Emphasis on alone.

"Six brothers and one sister...I can see why they'd think you were a bit of a novelty, though I can't see the seclusion myself. Then again, I was basically raised by my aunt and uncle, and the roughest, toughest, most awe-inspiring of all my cousins is a female; she could stare down a stallion a head taller than her, kick his rear to the curb, and then laugh about it afterward!" He didn't mention the fact that she was also a kalona; that fact tended to be a trifle off-putting to people that didn't know the family! "I'm sure that you'd be able to have adventures of your own, you just have to remind them that you're no fragile flower!" He grinned as he said that, unaware that she was in reality somewhat fragile. As far as he could see, she looked fine, but he wasn't used to sickness.

He frowned a bit at her next comment, but it was more through the use of an unfamiliar term than anything. "I guess I don't know what you mean by an 'angeni', but if he's your grandfather then he's probably been around for a bit. I feel sorry for the mare that he thinks is dead; it has to be a blow to the self-esteem to have someone consistently accuse you of being deceased!" He could pity that mare, and wondered what sort of circumstances would make someone think that someone else was dead. Maybe if the assumed deceased was absent a lot, that would be logical, but to see them alive and around? Well, people were strange.

Being raised by a raccoon was certainly strange, but he wasn't going to pass judgment beyond a single "Huh." as she mentioned her grandmotherly connections to the raccoon. A trifle unusual, but if the raccoon provided stability and affection and a motherly presence to Azimene's father, more power to her! Better to have some parental figure, no matter how small, than to be completely alone.

He was ready when she turned the subject back around on him, replying easily the simple description of his own family. "No, I'm afraid that there are neither in my family. I have two brothers that I never see, a father I never met, and an absent mother and was pretty much raised by my aunt and uncle alongside with my cousins. A bit of an atypical arrangement, but I'm an atypical fellow. So, is this the scenic route, then?" The last comment was directed at the scenery and delivered in the same easy, breezy tone that he described his family. Going off of tone alone, he might as well have been teasing her instead of being sincere! But the tone itself was the defense; with such an impish way of saying such a blunt statement, who could say if he was being honest or just joking?

Guirien had been enjoying himself immensely, as a matter of fact. Azimene was proving to be a pleasant mare, and she didn't push any subjects that he would rather not talk about. On top of that, this walk was shaping up to be much more scenic and interesting than he would have expected, given the barren-looking landscape that he had occupied when she had met him. All in all, he was pretty pleased with this turn of events, and very glad that he had come across this particular place.

As they passed into the gorge, he took careful stock of where he was placing his feet, not wanting to accidentally faceplant or get stuck. That would be an amusing conversation starter, were it not for the fact that the conversation was actually already underway! "I wouldn't be surprised if they were to cross paths at some point, actually; Lessia is a great traveler; for all I know she's even been here before." As he said that, Guirien was struck with the realization of just how correct he might be and paused for a moment; had he really gone far enough to avoid running into his family? It would certainly be a complication to encounter one of them while he was supposed to be off having time away, that was for sure! But after a brief moment of concern, he shook that thought off; even if he was in overlapping territory, he was moving too much and she would be moving too much for them to run into each other.

Or so he hoped.

Her comment about the angenis made him smile; at her tone, one would think that the breed was as common as crabgrass! "I'm afraid that I haven't had the privilege of hearing of or seeing an angeni, as a case in point. They sound like a very interesting breed, though; I don't envy them the complication of learning to fly with that many wings! Managing two was hard enough for me when I was younger." He wasn't really sure what she meant by her grandfather being the angeni of time, either, so he just skipped over that part, looking up at Azimene instead. "Hey, are you alright? You're coughing an awful lot."

Quickening his step, Guirien came up beside Azimene and peered at her for a moment. She looked pale, but given she was a pale mare it could be nothing. Still, coughing repeatedly sometimes meant something, didn't it? "I'll just stay up here, in case you need a shoulder." Grinning, he flourished a wing at the mare, drawing attention to his low but very serviceable shoulders.

It worked out well, though, because he was able to breeze past the family conversation by first airing his concerns about her and then soon after by his utter amazement at the sight before them as they emerged from the brush into the waterfall clearing. "Wow...this is really something, isn't it?" Having not traveled much beyond the forest until now, Guirien hadn't had much of a chance to ever actually see a waterfall, and this one was a doozy!

In some senses, it was a good thing to be non-threatening. It meant that you didn't have to worry with jittery nerves, paranoia, people running away when they saw you, or even people reflexively attacking you. Having been raised in a family of kalonas, Guirien had heard firsthand just what sort of prejudice people could have against those that APPEARED threatening, whether or not there was any other indication that the Soquili was dangerous. Logically, he could understand the paranoia, but it was sad at the same time: not everyone that looked aggressive or dangerous necessarily was.

At the same time, the reverse was also true. Guirien might be on the smaller side, a wind, bright magenta in coat, usually sporting a smile, and appear to be completely non-threatening...but he'd also been trained to fight by his aunt, a full-blood, combat-experienced kalona. He might not have the horns, fangs, and tail of a kalona, but he knew how to move, how to use his hooves and wings, and how to keep himself out of harm's way. It wasn't in his nature to actually attack anyone, but he definitely would know how if he WERE that sort of Soquili!

Not that he was about to share that information, of course.

"Well, I'm not sure, to be honest, but she and I didn't really ever sit down and discuss these things. Perhaps I will the next time I see her...whenever that is. She's not home too often." And, he thought to himself, it would be a while before he got back that way himself. "She's always been big on the adrenaline highs of life; the few times I've flown with her have been a real trip!" Chuckling, he looked back over his shoulder at his own wings, half-spreading them in review. "Flying is...different. It's not exactly something you can explain, but it's sort of like having a third set of legs. You can move your four legs together, two legs at a time, or move even just one; that's the same way it works for wings. It's like learning how to walk, but you have to learn how to move the wing first."

Learning to fly took a lot longer than learning to walk (or at least it had in his case), but he had always considered it worth it. Being able to fly brought him to entirely new views and vistas, and cut travel time down drastically. His wings, at least, he would never be upset with.

It said something about Guirien's knowledge of illness that the idea that Azimene was contagious hadn't even occurred to him. His concern was natural, the result of an upbringing that stressed consideration and courtesy, and in spite of her denial he wasn't entirely sure she was being truthful. She sounded a bit skittish in her reassurance that it was just dust, if he was being honest, but he wasn't going to push things. He'd just stay there with her for now, just in case; the last thing she needed was to collapse! Though it would be interesting to see if he could hold her up, the two of them being about the same height at all. Still, he was more muscular...it would work.

He stayed at her side as he looked over the waterfall, honestly awed by the sight of the glade. It might be somewhat commonplace to her, but in the flatter lands he was from such things simply didn't exist. The only 'waterfalls' were places where the river was at an angle and became rapids, and he had yet to get high enough on his own to encounter any others. This one was pretty spectacular for a new sight!

Following close at the mare's side, Guirien went down to the pool himself and, following her lead, took a drink. "Damn, that's cold water! Good, but it really bites your throat, doesn't it?" Grinning, he stood back up, blinking a bit at the spray that clung to his eyelashes. Reviewing Azimene as she drank, he chuckled again as he observed the spray clinging to her, too, making her horns and dark hair sparkle. "It's almost jewel-like, isn't it? Pretty neat."

Wings certainly had their perks, Guirien had to admit. When he wanted time to himself, there was nothing quite as fast and efficient as taking to the sky and heading off in some random direction. True, it didn't work well as an escape technique when everyone that you would be escaping from could ALSO fly; though Guirien was faster than his kalona relations, their broader wings were powered by much larger muscles and they could track him and catch him with relative ease, having much more stamina than their smaller cousin. Indeed, Guirien had occasionally served as the 'prey' in tracking exercises for his kalona family members, and never once managed to fully escape by air. It was that thought that had seen him depart for this particular journey on foot: it was far easier to disappear into the trees (even with a bright magenta coat!) than into the skies.

He was turning back to Azimene from the water, about to comment on that fact, when his sharp eyes caught the unmistakable sight of blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. He was hardly shocked by the principal of blood; over the years, he'd gotten into enough scrapes and had enough training to have both gotten knocked about himself AND inflicted a few injuries on his cousins. Blood was something to be acknowledged, but not alarmed by, in his experience; however, he'd never before seen blood just appear without provocation, either. The paleness of the mare made the darkness of the blood stand out even more, and for a few moments he was once again reduced to staring at her before he realized himself and, with a troubled and concerned expression, asked, "Sorry to change the subject, but are you SURE you're alright, Azimene?"

He wasn't as tactless as some of his family members, and bursting out with 'hey, you're bleeding' seemed like it might be a bit tacky, to say nothing of direct. His cousin Azelle was excessively vain and had been known to deck him just for teasing her in the past; and while he didn't quite see Azimene as that type of mare, she might be a little self-conscious about bleeding from the mouth. Unless it was a common thing for her, which it very well might be, because she didn't seem to have actually noticed it herself; and how could you miss something like that without being used to it?

Whatever the reason, Azimene was proving to be a puzzle in more ways than one; a pleasant puzzle, to be sure, but a puzzle nonetheless, and the last thing that he wanted was to have her suddenly pass out or need medical attention. He was no unicorn, after all, and wouldn't know the first place to go to get help!

But he was probably making a mountain out of a molehill, he was sure.

Truth be told, the idea that Azimene's 'illness' might be contagious hadn't even occurred to Guirien; he came from very healthy stock, and had never had more than a sniffle in all his years of living. Illness was a rare thing in his family as a rule, and his first thought on seeing the blood wasn't that she was sick, but rather that she had suffered some sort of injury, maybe from having something sharp mixed in with her latest meal. If she hadn't made her admission, he might not have ever suspected it was anything more than a minor injury to be treated and then ignored.

As it was, her clarification only raised questions. Being used to blood as the result of combat or clumsiness, he was mystified as to the circumstances that would lead to reoccurring and random blood loss. The only thing he could figure was that it was some sort of genetic thing; and if she said that she was fine, he wasn't going to push it. Few things had annoyed him as much growing up as when he said he was fine and he wasn't believed!

So he was willing to take her words at face value. "Alright, I just wanted to make sure. But if you need to sit down or rest or something, just pipe up; you don't have to be a super-energetic tour guide on my behalf." With that, he hoped to put the matter sufficiently at rest; both the matter of her 'illness' and the related matter of his dealing with it. Admittedly he was no expert on wounds or ailments anyway; the best he could do was bandage and poultice wounds, and depending on the location and type of wound, that could be tricky enough! The last thing either of them needed was to have her push herself too far and pass out from blood loss or something!

Well, she likely knew what she was capable of better than he did. That in mind, he was quick to change the now-worn subject. "So, do you come to this place often? I can imagine it must be very peaceful!"

If there was one thing that Guirien could respect, it was not being pestered to spill his guts to any and everyone that asked. While he was largely clueless about the specific nature of Azimene's complaint, it would stay that way unless she chose to share herself. Considering his own conflicted nature regarding his own issues, it would be nothing if not hypocritical for him to push her! Besides, who ought to know better than one's own self what one was capable of?

So he nodded in response to her declaration, trusting that she'd let him know if she needed a break. And if she overshot her abilities a little bit...well, he might be small, but he was tough and wiry and could probably step up and support her if she needed it!

Though at the moment, there seemed little danger of her overexerting herself, as all they were doing was milling around. Or in Azimene's case, sitting around! As she set her tail down, he took the opportunity to poke around a little bit, meandering down along the side of the pool and looking up and around at the majestic waterfall and the tall sides of the cliffs. It was certainly lovely and unusual...though as a creature used to open spaces and the comfort of trees, he could see himself becoming claustrophobic surrounded by rock on all sides! Canyon or chasm living was obviously not for him; even with his wings and the sight of blue sky, this would be too much.

It was a lovely place to visit, though!

He smiled at her description of the impressive sights in the mountains, chuckling a bit at her naivete regarding the land she was heading towards. Though at the same time, he was aware of the irony in their comparative situations; the only difference (based on what he'd actually been told) was that she was heading TO something, and he was heading away. Were he to know the actual truth, he might be even more stuck...but that wasn't conversation for the moment. "Well, we certainly have a lot of rivers and lakes down there; standing water is something we have in abundance, at least in the area I'm from." Considering that for a moment, he amended himself with, "Scratch that. It's more running water where I'm from; one of the largest rivers in the region cuts through the forest where I mostly grew up, and we spent a lot of time near it. There are several smaller branch streams and tributaries that feed it, and it's fun to just float along and see where the current takes you sometimes."

That had been a bit of a wild game when they were younger, riding the current; a bit dangerous too, as his feathered wings, unlike the tougher leather wings of his cousins, weren't usable when wet. That hadn't stopped him from enjoying the experience, or thriving on the danger at the time, though! "Mostly what the flat-lands have to offer is flatness. You've got the plains, where there's nothing much but grass, and the forest, where there's not much but trees. It's not incredibly exciting, unfortunately."

When people talked of their homes, they tended to fall into one of two categories: nostalgic and fond, or dismissive and unappreciative. Soquili that fell into the former category usually thought that wherever they lived was the finest place on earth; even if it was a desert, or an ice field, it was what they knew, where they'd grown up, what they knew; it was worn in like a security blanket, they knew its secrets and ways, and no matter how far away they went, it remained something that they missed, looked back on fondly, and talked up to anyone that asked.

The latter type, on the other hand, tended to be always looking forward. Home was something to be dismissed or forgotten, significant only in that it was in the past and was something to be surpassed by all future domiciles or terrains. When asked about their homes, this sort of Soquili would often shrug and shake their heads dismissively, offering nothing beyond saying that their home was nothing special when asked.

Such were the two main types of Soquili when it came to their homes, and Guirien fell into neither type. He was actually quite fond of the forest, especially the river that cut through it. Had it been for the region alone, he would have been content to stay where he knew indefinitely. It was only in the denizens of that home that things became complicated, and the comfortable and familiar sights of home had long ceased to be comforting and become tinged with guilt or toxicity. Even now, with many miles of space and many days of travel between here and there, Guirien couldn't bring himself to dwell too deeply on what he had left behind. It was that mental blockade that left him a little vague in answering Azimene's questions, though she hopefully wouldn't read too much into that.

Though he had to smile at her description of the lowlands as being a place of community. It was a sardonic smile, one that was laced with bitterness and sat at sharp odds with the cold look in his eyes, but lasted for a mere moment before he caught himself and shook off that mood. She had no way of knowing that what she had seen wasn't universal, and had even less way of knowing that he had always wanted to feel that sense of family and community and failed.

And as such, he was a poor companion for Azimene, in her current desire for knowledge. He had to shake his head at her question regarding friends; aside of family, there was no one that he knew. His uncle's family lived a somewhat secluded life, partially by choice and partially due to the natural suspicion most other Soquili had of those that bore kalona blood. Ironically, his cousins all had friends from outside the family; he, the only non-kalona looking of them all, had never managed to make such a step. "Honestly, I can't say that I did. I was closest to my cousins, and didn't really know anyone outside of my family. It's a big family, in my defense, but I had actually never ventured out and met anyone else. You're actually the first Soquili I've met that I wasn't either related to or meeting through one of my cousins," he said with no small amount of self-deprecation.

But it was a painful topic, and he was more than willing to get away from it again. "I'm ready to move myself; I don't exactly have an agenda, so whatever works for you is fun with me!"