She was less surprised this time, because she adapted quickly and he had shown his powers already. She took note, though, of every different thing he showed her that he could do. Committed them to memory in case it was of use some day.
Her breath left her as he conjured the image of a Unicorn before them. All at once, her fear spiked again, and then plummeted suddenly and was replaced with sadness. With yearning. She pulled herself from the ground to sit and stare at it, to watch it form and come to life as if he could create a portal to home and bring her Mother back to her. But it was not possible.
So beautiful. So white and graceful and elegant.
Enchanting. Magical.
Her silver eyes examined it in full with a deeply aching heart, from perfectly placed silky hair to those cloven hooves. For a moment, her gaze dropped to her paws, just a flicker. She'd never have hooves like those. Hers were as plain as a horse. As well as her tail. Perhaps from magic mutating in a half-ling. Or perhaps Mother had done it to protect her, to make her blend in better in this world. She'd never know.
It was so similar to Mother, as they all were, and unshed tears glittered in her eyes. She just wanted to stare at it for the rest of the night, until the sun took her away. And walk up and touch it. Rub against its legs like she might smell and feel her Mother again. Feel safe and loved again. Perhaps a vixen, a mare on her own, could still be a little girl in secret and want foolish things.
He spoke and tore her from her thoughts, and she blushed lightly with a faint scowl glancing at him and back to the Unicorn, lifting a little furred shoulder to surreptitiously nudge a droplet out of the corner of her right eye. Why did she run from them? He couldn't be sillier. Or well, fine. She did run from them. But she ran from everything else, too.
She almost answered, would have even had a little snip in her voice for how silly he sounded. Had he ever seen anything like them here? Of course not. They wouldn't be able to blend in, now would they? Wouldn't be able to catch her if they were glowing everywhere they walked. Would be far easier to avoid them, to survive, if she could see them shining like the flash of a search light. They even changed their shapes in their world too, to watch over their territories in anonymity. So instead, she couldn't trust anything. Not another fox, not another horse, not any creature.
She only trusted him this much due to his ignorance. His honest questioning.
But it was that last one that kept her from saying anything at all, and her mouth clipped shut, eyes sharp and still on the Unicorn. There was still a chance he'd find himself crossing paths with one and offer up information on her, confirm that she was in this world, that this was where her mother's portal had thrown her. In the end, her only priority was survival. And not for herself. For her Mother.
"The sun hurts," she replied shortly, a truth. It did hurt, or cause the hurt at least. Triggered it. And it hurt a great deal. And she was wary of him again, suspicious. Wary of what more he could learn of her. For the most part it was all shallow, most especially if he wouldn't connect the bits and pieces he'd gleaned so far. She wouldn't have told him, or anyone, but again.. his ignorance was genuine and teased at her to trust him. That, and that a Unicorn from her birth home might not quite know how to manage him. Would give pause long enough for her to escape. She hoped.
But she didn't hope it enough to try and keep him around. Companions were threats. Perhaps he above any other with his magic that could cage her this way. Her eyes slid to his face, still sitting erect with her tail curled over her paws.
"Release me," she commanded with the remaining bit of young and naive stupidity, and a good bit of the buried-deep pride that belonged to a Unicorn's daughter, even one so foul as her. She forced herself to hold his gaze without wavering, though she swore she'd might start trembling if she'd angered him. He'd keep her here. And she wasn't sure if that counted as survival, if it was a temporary hold until he killed her or traded her for more power.
She would've run from him long ago were it not for this magic that bound her here with him.
