They had pulled him out of the great hall, the two Halcyon cadets with their shorn manes and the bright markings on their wings, but for a few moments the king’s thoughts lingered with Calliope.
Their meeting had begun as unexpectedly and ended as abruptly as their last, and he was sorry for it; when, he thinks, would he ever be able to speak with her fully? Or would it always be like this - his confession, his burning question, and then an interruption?
But all those thoughts are pushed away when he sees the gophers.
It is not at all what he had expected and for a moment the bay stallion only stands, nonplussed. At first his gaze lingers on Theodosia - once again a savior, a helper, and he reminds himself to tell her to get some rest (he cannot afford to lose her, cannot afford to lose any of them). But then his dark eyes move to the stranger, and something in him jumps as at a friction shock.
He does not know her -
does he?
There is no time, though, to wonder; there are stranger things yet to come. At the scuffle of movement, the sea of brown furry bodies, Asterion furrows his brow. Already their halls were full of beasts, of teeth and claw and feathers.
Are you not a beast, too? Cirrus chides him, from somewhere above.
Faintly, Asterion smiles.
“Hello,” he answers the gray mare, and extends his muzzle in greeting to them both. “Come in - all of you - but what is going on?”
if you'll be my star*
