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It had been a long, long few weeks.

Ever since he was a foal, Guiliaume had known that someday he wanted to leave the home of his mother, find his father, and consequently be happy. It had been a simplistic dream that had taken on the growth and life of an obsession, the hope that he clung to on the dark days when he was alone and scared in the forest, shunted off to the side so that his mother could play with her boy toys in peace or even driven away by jealous stallions who didn't want a child about while they were wooing. It had been his solace when she had been amongst other stallions who were even worse, stallions who found him amusing or in need of companionship and consequently hung around to try and socialize with him, even when there was no other reason for them to stay. None had ever seemed to understand that he didn't like them, didn't approve of them, and didn't want them around; his silent nature had been taken for everything from sullenness to shyness, and there had been those determined to break the colt out of his 'unhealthy quiet.' Very few of that type had been able to realize that he was perfectly able and willing to talk: he just didn't want to talk to them.

He had put his dream into action as soon as he was old enough (in his own mind), simply telling his mother one morning that he was off to look for his father and didn't think he would be back. It said a lot about their mother-son relationship that she simply listened to him, nodded, reminded him to keep himself groomed and to see if his father was still as much of a stud as she remembered him being. That was the summation of their parting, and it would be a lie to say that there was any sorrow or regret on either side. Guiliaume had left, and never looked back.

In retrospect, it was an audacious plan. He had never seen his father; only knew his name, and that he himself was an almost mirror image of him. He didn't know where he was going, exactly what he intended to do to achieve that goal...

But somehow, he had managed to overcome the odds. It had taken years of travel through all sorts of regions and terrains, meeting Soquili of all shapes and sizes and languages, but finally, finally, he had come to the Kawani lands and, through the intervention of the spirits, had found his father. It had been a joyous and surreal moment that had first proved to be everything he had wished and hoped for. Guilian had acknowledged him at once, embracing him as his son and taking an interest in his life and past that his mother never had. Guilian had apologized for not being there for him, and had told him he was always welcome as a member of the family.

And then Guiliaume learned just how little he had thought about life after finding Guilian. He soon learned his father was a social, sexual male who had, besides Guiliaume, ten other biological children and numerous grandchildren, as well as a couple children he viewed as his own that had been born by one of his lovers to another stallion. The family was massive, confusing, and chaotic, close, affectionate...and completely overwhelming to a stallion who had spent most of his life on his own and away from society. He had put on a brave face for as long as he could, but then had needed space again. With his father, he had been much more courteous than with his mother, but he had been equally breif as he explained that he needed time to himself for now. Guilian had understood and told him to take as much time as he cared to, but to know that he always had a home in the forest.

That had been encouraging, and Guiliaume had taken it to heart as he made his way out from the forest. He hadn't really had a plan, which made him feel both free and panicked, and that was why the first few weeks had been so long. He no longer had a mission, and being unused to doing things spontaneously...well, it had been a slow start.

After a lot of mindless wandering, a plan had finally crystallized. In the course of his travels, he had been exposed to a great many regions and, consequently, languages. He had managed to pick up bits and pieces as he passed through, enough to get by but not much more...with a few exceptions.

There had been a region with a large (to him) settlement that spoke the primary language of his mother. Most of the speakers had been of the strange two-legged variety, but he had seen Soquilis there as well. It had been years since he'd spoken the language himself, and his speech had never been perfect, but now that he was suddenly in possession of a lot of free time, he was suddenly feeling very...nostalgic. So it was towards that village he had gone, intending to set himself up close enough to listen and learn...without being too obtrusive, of course.

Finding the village had taken longer than Guiliaume had anticipated, and when he had found it he had discovered, much to his chagrin, that hanging out and listening would prove a lot more challenging than he had anticipated. Chalking it up to his own inattention to such details at the time, he had remembered there being a lot more cover in the neighborhood of the village than there actually was. As things stood in reality, he would be exposed like a...well, like a bright red Soquili in a snow field.

The darkness of night had provided him with a little bit of cover, and he had taken full advantage of that cover to make a few silent passes by the little village. It had been quiet, but he had heard enough snippets of conversation from the odd dwellings to know that this was the place he had been looking for. The voices were muffled, but he recognized a great of the words and was able to pick out a few...well, a few rather mundane conversations, to be honest. Comments about food, and clothes, and plans for the next day, pretty uneventful stuff.

What surprised him was the lack of Soquili. He'd thought that there had been several about the village when he had last been there, but he saw neither hide nor hair of anything other than the two-legged types that whole night. And it stayed that way, right up until the next morning. As the sun had started to come up, he had drawn back himself, not wanting to be caught 'spying' or to be regarded as an impostor...or to be caught. He didn't know if it was true or not, but he'd heard rumors that humans valued Soquili very highly and would catch and restrain them, keeping them captive and using them as burden animals. True or not, he'd rather not test that out.

It was while he'd been retreating that he had noticed her: the only Soquili of the entire village (so it seemed, at least). She had appeared with the same sun he had retreated from, emerging from one of the odd human dwellings and setting to breakfast. Guiliaume had been surprised; both at her arrival, and at the extraordinary fact that she was wearing clothes. He'd seen enough humans to recognize them, but never before seen a Soquili sporting the unique coverings. His curiosity was piqued at once, and he continued to observe the mare for some time, watching her observations of the emerging humans, and then her interaction with the human that had come out to meet her. From the fact their mouths were moving, he could see that they were speaking, yet his new post made listening impossible. A dilemma, indeed.

But at least dilemmas led to resolutions. After thinking it over for a short time, Guiliaume made a somewhat bold decision...and made his way over towards the camp, specifically towards the mare and her companion. As far as he could tell, the mare wasn't restrained, so hopefully he would be safe. And he could always fly away at the first sign of trouble, right?

Upon closer examination, the mare's appearance was even more extraordinary than it had first appeared. From a distance, Guiliaume had been able to see that she wore clothing; up close, he was able to see just how complex and detailed that clothing was. Indeed, the human that he had first seen tending to the mare was actually doing something to the clothes, sewing them up and making them a bit more orderly. It was a bizarre sight to a stallion used to nothing more complex than simple neck chains or ribbons, and he realized that he was staring rather rudely after a short amount of time. Whoops.

Kicking himself mentally for the faux pas, he turned from the mare's garments and 'handmaiden' to the mare herself, offering an apologetic nod and slight bow as he returned the mare's greeting with his own, simple, "Good morning, Miss." At least that much he was able to say clearly and without any grammatical errors; how he'd fare with anything more complex would remain to be seen!

So why not start now and save time?

Settling back his wings, he glanced at her human companion once again, then looked back at her with a polite, "I am sorry for staring, I am just not familiar much with Soquili under cloths." As he spoke he shifted, frowning as he reviewed his word choices mentally. That wasn't quite the right word, but he hoped she'd understand his meaning...and forgive him if he managed to insult her in the bargain. "Excuse my speech; I needs practice. I have not spoken this in many times."

Turnabout was fair play, so Guiliaume took no offense from being stared at by the mare. However, at first he was rather anxious that either he'd completely botched what he was trying to say so as to have made no sense at all, or had somehow managed to say something that was either rude or inappropriate. The fact that she was unused to anyone speaking to her in the language never even occurred to him; as he had heard so much of the language coming from the village, it was a logical conclusion for him that there were many speakers about. Though if he were to think about it longer, it might occur to him that she was the only Soquili around, and though the humans were understandable, they just couldn't understand when Soquilis spoke to them in turn.

Still, there were a few awkwardly tense moments for Guiliaume as he was being stared at, and were he not already of a dark red complexion he might very well have flushed a bit. Fortunately, he was used to awkward situations and managed to avoid the foot-shuffling, head ducking common to those that weren't when they were in these situations!

But it was relief when she finally spoke again, setting his mind at ease with regards to his speech and relieving his concern regarding his own impertinent appearance. He didn't quite understand every word she was saying, but context was a wonderful thing and he understood, consequently, the rareness of his knowing ANYTHING of the language!

Smiling himself, he accepted the advice with a nod, replying in his careful, slightly slower style, "You are very kindly and patiently with me, and I am apologies for any mistakes. It has been years since I was among my mother, who liked to speak this language. I know what I do from spending times with her, though we did not just speaks this." Aurentia, his mother, had been a Colonial Soquili herself at one point, though Guiliaume didn't actually know that. His mother had never been one to talk about her past, merely to revel in the present; she had enjoyed the language too much to abandon it but also spoke the local Soquili dialect with relative ease. It was from her that Guiliaume had inherited his ability to learn languages, though he would never admit it.

He was also unfamiliar with the term 'colonial Soquili' to begin with, and had to ask after a moment, "Excuse my unknowing, but what is 'colonial'?"

If he was a novelty, that was at least something promising. It meant that he would have a chance to stay and listen and learn without being driven off for maiming the language, at least for now! And it was reassuring to hear that he wasn't horrible, even though he suspected that the mare was being kinder than his woefully unpracticed language skills actually merited. He was well aware of his own inadequacy , now that he was in the presence of an actual native speaker of the language, and that inadequacy was underscored when her explanation of colonial Soquili went almost completely over his head. That was hardly surprising; humans were hardly a subject his mother had often brought up.

Consequently, for all of his best efforts at understanding and deciphering, all that he managed to make out of her explanation was that colonial Soquilis were foreigners who had...something that the local Soquili had. The foreign part accounted for the language, he supposed...

With a somewhat embarrassed look, he queried, "Sorry, could you repeat...slow...the last thing? And what is 'human'? You say like I should understanding, but I am not." Hopefully her humoring of his slowness would last for a while longer, otherwise he wouldn't be getting anywhere! Originally he hadn't had much of a plan for working on the language aside of simply listening, but this brief conversation was proving that interaction was necessary if he hoped to gain any sense of comprehension. After all, how was he supposed to figure out words he'd never heard if they couldn't be explained to him?

Fortunately for his understanding and for her sanity, Aziza slowing down her speech had the desired effect. That, and the helpful visual aid of the human working at her clothes; while he was familiar with the species, he had never really known what they were called, barring the Kawani word of the mostly hairless bipedal creatures. Obviously humans weren't common occurrences in his childhood! But he processed the word, nodding as he did so, and the explanation of what a colonial Soquili was began to make sense. "So Colonial is a Soquili that lives with humans that are not...common to this land? Or is it any Soquili that lives with humans? I am thinks that it is just the uncommon humans, the ones that live in the small herds, but it is such a strangely word."

This wasn't exactly the sort of conversation Guiliaume had been expected for his first foray back into the language, but considering that he hadn't really had a plan to begin with, it was going better than might otherwise be expected. And in accepting that fact, Guiliaume realized that he had made one further faux pas: "Please to forgive my bad manners; my name is Guiliaume, and I am greatly appreciating your patience and kindness with my ignorance." Some things being universal, he gave the mare a formal bow, then folded his wings back up over his back. "I am hoping that time and...repeating will help me remember and improve."

It was going to be an uphill battle, though; this one conversation was proving an excellent illustration of the wide array of words that were needed in even a casual conversation; the lifestyle that he had lived and the one that he had been exposed to had little in common with day to day life either in his father's lands or almost anywhere else; to be sure, the French language had little use there, either, but that was beside the point! He would simply have to overcome.

If posed the question himself, Guiliaume would likely assert that he fell into the category of adaptable Soquili; while he himself wasn't necessarily 'receptive to anything that moved', he was a quick study and tended to learn rapidly from those he met. The key in his case was a methodical approach, a healthy dose of repetition, and not too much chaos. Though he would never be able to say whether it was a natural-born trait or the result of his upbringing, large groups and tumultuous gatherings, fights, parties, or other loud and confusing situations were his bane. It was rather ironic that after years of traveling, the father he had sought loved just the thing that made his son cringe...but life was fond of surprises.

Regardless of its origins, though, he was grateful that there was currently just one mare and few humans around. It might be trying for her, but it was definitely easier for him to not having to feel as though he was on display to the masses!

Consequently, he was very much at ease for the time being, bad grammar and resulting embarrassment aside. "I see; it is odd term for me, but is making sense in this...setting," he supplied, casting about for the term for 'context' and failing. "But it is good to learn! And I would be preferring it if you would be correcting me; I am not so learned as to know exactly where I am badly." This was accompanied by a grateful smile, accepting her introduction at the same time. "It is a pleasure, Aziza. Would it be alrights if I were to stay and chat with you for a time? I was desiring to...stay near here for a time to listen, but speaking would be making things easier for me." Finishing that statement he frowned, going over it in his head. It certainly sounded more forward than he would like, and with a shake of his head he tried again, offering the clarification, "Only if it does not awkward you, that is."

In some ways, it was quite odd that Guiliaume wasn't actually a stallion who fit the 'suave' label. He certainly had the dark good looks of the stereotype, the accent, the poise; but what he'd never had, had actively fought against, was the inclination. Given the tendencies of both of his parents, it would be interesting to consider what natural-born skills in the flirtation department he might very well possess...had he not made it a matter of principal from a very young age to squelch any and all lustful or even flirtatious thoughts and actions. Guiliaume had spent so much time repressing himself that these days, even he didn't notice when he did it! Mares were treated kindly and respectfully and with great attention and chivalry, but for their own sakes, not the sakes of what they might offer him.

Indeed, it wasn't for nothing that his father had jestingly dubbed him the monk!

Still, it was a relief to know that he was non-threatening and not being taken as impertinent, which would have been all too easy in the circumstances. Having been set at ease on that score, Guiliaume's body relaxed and he broke into his first truly genuine and spontaneous smile of the day. "You continue to be kindness showing. I shall do my best to be unburdening, as I have practices in taking care of myself." It still sounded awkward, and he winced inwardly, but as long as he got his point across, he would take advantage of this opportunity as long as necessary, or as long as he didn't wear out his welcome. It was emboldening, the hospitality and tolerance he'd been greeted with thus far, and he was quietly confident that he'd continue to be worthy of such condescension.

If nothing else, he could at least offer an amusement for Aziza herself!

Her remark about his name caught his attention right away. Having just known it as his name, the fact that it was French had never once come to his attention, and it was with a rather unguarded, "Is it?" that he responded. "I was not knowing it so, no one ever told me of this. My mother gave me that name after my father, whose name is Guilian; I never knew it was a French name. But no, I have not...lived here long." That was putting it mildly; he'd never lived anywhere for very long, and this region itself was still rather new. "Have you been at this place long?"