Willfur
He’s already plucking a first few mouthfuls of sour-sweet vittles when a voice rises to meet those comical, towering ears. He doesn’t startle, still chewing as his head lifts above the hedge and traces the sound to its source. A quizzical look brightens the coarse features of wide brow and square jaw when he identifies an auburn shape among the green and brown of the forest; Equine! Someone new!
Company!
“Mm!” He tries to acknowledge, swallows. "No, but that doesn’t mean my words go unappreciated. Plants are known to grow more quickly when spoken or sung to, though it’s uncertain if they actually like the prose or just so happen to inhale what we exhale. I think it's a happy enough exchange either way, though. And-“ One mahogany eye winks closed, the other glittering conspiratorially. "You never know who might be listening.”
A hundred questions crowd his mind, conservatively estimating, but he'd learned in his youth not to overwhelm or offend with an onslaught of attention, especially those he's not yet familiar with. This red mare doesn't appear outwardly aggressive or unwelcoming, but the way she stands feels... poised. Expectant? Ready, maybe, but for what? So he reins in his interest with practiced calm, settling on something gentle and leading to begin. "Are you hungry?"
The mare's shadow moves, snatching his attention because she did not move, which shouldn't be possible. "Oh, or your-" He hesitates, stalled by the rare realization that he doesn't know what that is.
"-companion?" The creature is long bodied and athletic looking, a mish-mash of textures and pieces, and while he might recognize one part as similar to something he's seen before - a rams horn, a dragons scale - this particular combination is novel. Not griffin, not manticore, not chimera, nor any traditional version of any hybrid he knows.
How fascinating!
He's too distracted to notice the berries darkening at his side, their juices going tart and evaporating into nothing, slowly wrinkling the skin that just seconds before was taut and gleaming.
@Thana
