The sun bore down mercilessly on the field, autumn giving no relief to the residents of Beqanna. Not even those who deserved it.

Archaelis made his way into the field, legs pulling him toward the center of the land where water was promised. It is here that the flaxen stallion stopped, dipping his bone colored muzzle into the cool water of the stream. He allowed the liquid to slid down the willing passage of his dry throat, the pins and needles slowly fading from his body.

His head rose, brown hues straying from the ground to the field, his smile widening at the sight. 

"Hello. I am Kosh."

The rust colored stag nearly burst through the roof. A not so manly scream erupting from his chest.

"Well, Kosh.. you should learn not to sneak up on people like that."

He assessed the child before him now, raising a questioning brow, he had been scared... by a child.

"I could have killed you yah know. Merciless killing machines roam around here. Don't wanna go scaring them now do yah?"

By no means could the stallion have hurt her. He couldn't hurt a fly, even if he REALLY wanted to. It simply wasn't in his nature. He waited for his words to sink in before a laugh came, followed by a bright smile.

"Im kidding im kidding. I am Archaelis by the way, but my friends call me Archie."

She had been too eager, too curious about him - her approach had been bad both literally and figuratively.

"Oh-", it was a long, less than excited exhale when she realized she startled him.  The blue roan was crestfallen at once, certain that she'd been the weirdo to freak a stranger out.

They seem nice.  We should go introduce ourselves!  

Memories that echoed in Kosh's mind felt like words travelling down long marble halls, her voice two years younger and so was Vai's.  They thought they had been so wise as yearlings when in truth they had been stupid, stupid girls.  The tribes neighboring their borders were far from being kind and who were they - these silly, ignorant, sheltered fillies - to think that everyone on the outside would accept them wherever they went?  Her mouth went dry remembering the last time she had seen a - what did Archaelis call them? - a 'Killing Machine'?  It took a minute to try and figure out what he meant - but when it clicked it clicked and her gray eyes lit up like silver beneath a messy mop of feathery black hair.

"Oh-oh, you mean a Plainsmen. Honestly, I was worried you were one - but you speak my language."  Kosh tried to remain hopeful as she stepped closer to him.  All the horses she had ever seen was the Crone, her grandmothers, the mothers, and the children - all the men stayed on the outside and never came into the Valley.  The first time she had ever seen one was with Vai and even then she had been more lucky than her companion to never know how cruel they could be.  But she could either be afraid of the rest of the world and never understand why or she could find her way into it somehow unscathed - and if the world must hurt her then hurt her, just don't kill her.  Archaelis did not seem to be violent in anyway and so, Kosh stepped closer again. 

"I like Archaelis better."  She said forwardly, her dark black face stared up at him as if she were trying to spy a bird in the trees above his ears.  "You are very tall.  I've never seen someone so big before."  Her tail swished curiously, the field and all of it's tenants forgotten as the short blue horse inspected him.  "Where do you come from?  I am from everywhere."  He didn't smell like Here, not that she knew what Here even meant.  Kosh wasn't even from Here, but her smell was a collection of musks and flowers from the hollows she haunted and the meadows she wallowed in before finding Beqanna. 

Or rather, Beqanna finding her.