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Keshet's family was finally on the move, though they were moving slowly, so his baby brother, Temper, could keep up. Even though the going was slow, he was delighted to be able to see new places and sights. They had found a good place to stop for a few days, so Keshet had wandered off. His father, at least, trusted Keshet sufficiently to take care of himself and not wander too far off, since he was the eldest, sturdiest, bravest, and most reliable of the five foals...or so Keshet liked to believe. It might not be necessarily true, but that didn't bother Keshet. He took a certain amount of pride in being the eldest, and tried to act the part, especially around his siblings.

He also noticed the unusual stones, but had seen more as they'd been coming out of the highlands, so he wasn't terribly interested in them. He was, however, interested in a surprisingly sweet scent on the wind, a scent he knew must be kirin, but it was curious. He'd smelled kirin before, but never this sweet. About all he could tell was that he was downwind of this kirin, so he followed the scent, looking for whoever smelled that good. Maybe they wouldn't mind him nibbling on them?

Finally, he came in sight of the sweet scent and stopped to stare. It was a brown kirin filly with flowers in her mane and tail, a bell hanging from her little horn, and wings like a bird. This kirin had to be the weirdest kirin he'd ever seen, by far, even though Aunt Lakshmi had a flower tucked behind her ear, and Uncle Tuyet wore a scarf. The filly that smelled so sweet was studying the rocks he thought were so uninteresting, and he just had to laugh when he saw her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. "You look silly with your tongue sticking out like that," he said as he laughed.

"Me? Silly?" he asked as he caught his breath. "I think you're talking about the wrong foal, fuzztail." He grinned. "Anything you wanted to know about those rocks, fuzztail? I've seen lots of them." He unconsciously stepped much closer, and some part of him urged to try a casual nibble to see if she tasted as good as she smelled.

He ignored the jibe. He'd deal with it after he tasted her and answered her questions. "Hmm, well, they come from the mountains. I think they fall off the cliffs and just roll down here. They're whatever sort of rocks fall off cliffs," he said, coming closer all the time, until he was in range for a nibble. Well, nothing for it, but to taste her. He reached out and took a delicate chomp, not really hard enough to take out any flesh, not with his baby mouth, but still enough to realize she tasted at least as good as she smelled. "You taste good," he said, before she could respond with a kick or a scream or a bite or some other appropriate response.

Keshet looked up at her quizzically. "You can fly. I was wondering why you had wings like a bird." He shrugged at her last question. "I was wondering if you tasted as good as you smell. You don't; you taste BETTER than you smell." He smiled. "Come down, I didn't hurt you, did I, fuzztail?" he asked more gently, surprising for a colt so aloof. "No one says those rocks came down the easy way, did they? Some of them fell not long ago, so they're not smooth yet, and Daddy says when something called ice gets in the cracks, this ice makes the cracks in the rock bigger. Besides," he said with a playful grin, "sometimes, animals and kirin like to play or use the rocks, like this!" He jumped onto the lower rocks, scrabbling to keep his fragile balance, now in a position to more easily nom on her should the opportunity arise.

"Well," he began flustered, "isn't it the same with you eating grass for the first time? You're curious about it and you take a bite? I won't eat you," he added hurriedly. "You're the only one who tastes good, and if I ate you, I'd be sad." He hoped this last bit reassured her. ((It won't, Kesh. You're scaring everyone.)) "Anyway, Daddy said that ice is hard water." It was clear that he was also confused about *why* all this was so, but he was loathe to show his ignorance. "I'm sure that the water gets in the crack, hardens, and then...and then...." He flailed for an answer that sounded logical. "And then it grows, sort of, and then the ice breaks, and the crack gets bigger."

((And with all that flailing, he actually gets close to the mark. xd Pity about the lack of reassurances.))

"Well, Daddy says it gets cold," he responded, increasingly flustered. He didn't know how or why water got so cold that it became hard, but hopefully he'd understand in a few seasons or so. Her next question further flustered him. "Doesn't everyone have a daddy, fuzztail?" Why had she asked such a silly question? Right, he wasn't the silly one, *she* was the silly one. Didn't everyone have a daddy?

((OMG, I feel sooo sorry for poor Kesh. xd This is why they're going to be awesome mates for each other.))

Keshet shrugged. "Her daddy's got to be somewhere, maybe he's just not around her anymore." He shied away from the implications of a father who was no longer around his daughter. Her question made him swell a little with pride. "My daddy trusts me to go on patrols! He's off beyond the trees," he added, indicating the line of trees behind him with a toss of his head. "He's with my mommy, my three baby brothers, my baby sister, Aunt Lakshmi, Uncle Abhy, and Uncle Tuyet."