Sage
That was what they called him here, though it seemed an empty label. For all that the desert looked like home he had not yet found it a comfortable, welcome place. Still, he couldn't imagine himself in another setting. Where else did the wind roar so freely and kick up the sand in the way it should? He would rather outrace all the sandstorms in the world than live on verdant pastured where the air was still and dead. He had taken to avoiding the foreign stone structure as much as possible though that also seemed to leave him lonely for company in the vastness of the Solterran desert. But he had seen the notice and he could easily understand the need for food in such a climate. His people were not given to agriculture- they had sustained their herds on the scarce bounty of their home. Not all could thrive so well though.
So he entered the court almost immediately upon hearing the roaring voice that he had come to assosciate with the current sovereign. Why a lion? Did he know lions? Had he seen them kill the young of their enemies and steal the kills of better predators? Did he know they were bullies? Did he admire them? All these thoughts tumbled through his head and yet he held himself mute and uncertain. His skin jumped nervously and then he advance quickly and lightly across the court.
"Many shoulders will ease the burden of the work." He offered the phrase almost as a greeting, something like a smile on his white-masked muzzle. He moved to the piles of river mud and without much worry for dirtying the bright gold of his coat he began to paw the earth and shift it. It would take many hours and many bodies to form a good bed for planting, sew the seeds, and then care for it each day. Though he knew little of the ways of such things, he was curious to see the project progress through the days and through the seasons.
He paused once or twice, head turning towards Maxence and almost freeing one of the questions that chased themselves in his head. Then he shook his head and turned back to the work at hand, mute. On the third time he paused, the words exploded from between his lips, so quick one nearly chased the next off his tongue.
"Why do you bear a lion's head?" And then his teeth clicked shut and he bowed his head to his work. One ear stayed cocked towards the sovereign though and he watched the painted stallion at least as much as he watched his own hooves.
[ @Maxence, since he asked him a question. :)]
