He inquires what a tiger is, and Ana tilts her head, trying to figure out a good way to put it in words. When she had asked her own daddy what a tiger was he had just turned into a fluffy ball of stripes, and that had been explanation enough. She visualises the furry, broad tiger-form of her father before she tries to put words to it.
”Well they’re stripey and they have sharp teeth and long skinny tails…” she doesn’t get to finish her explanation before he interrupts her to ask whether the butterflies would kiss them and Ana is about to reply, and tell him ‘If that’s what you want, we can make it happen’ (although she’s unsure of how exactly they’d go about doing this – butterflies don’t have mouths and you need mouths to kiss – or maybe they just had tiny mouths and Ana couldn’t see them?) when something else happens – a gigantic bird descends from the sky and drops down a little sparkly blue colt. The boy she was talking to becomes entirely distracted, and the words fall from her mouth unspoken, discouraged at his lack of interest in conversing with her. And aside from that, he starts bellowing and running away from her, towards the sparkly colt. She follows him though, a little apprehensively, remaining quiet throughout their exchange,
A pretty blue and white filly is next to join in their conversation. Ana had never seen this many people in one go on her own; let alone ones her own age, and let alone ones who were exuberant and bursting with energy and excitement. Her ears flicker a little anxiously at this new girl, the one who exclaims the loveliness of the butterfly. A little puzzled she looks back at the butterfly – yes, Ana, supposes, it is rather OK looking. The first colt shouts excitedly again, and Ana takes a step back.
Another one appears, less splendidly dressed than the rest, in brown and white, although Ana thinks it is an entirely fetching coat-colour in its own right. He is also a good deal less noisy and rambunctious than the rest, which immediately paints him in a favourable light. Knight talks again, invites him to join their little party and Ana’s light applegreen eyes widen. She is entirely overwhelmed by the amount of children, and their respective energy. Fortunately they are all very interested in talking to each other and not her, so it is not difficult for the little metal-and-cream filly to slip off from the gathering, in search of quiet and adventures.
