This sensation is new. She knows that whatever is happening (it isn't true shifting like she has Skandar or Obscene do), the emotions beneath her skin are being woven to create a different tapestry. Each of the horses around her are feeling different things, and so when she glances up, she knows that the Pampas Prince's anger isn't directed at her (atleast not this time). His red eyes bore into her and the palomino glances back down to the girl who calls her Sundari instead.
Aela can't see how she appears to the young ocelot, but the few memories she can find reveal another light-gold Tephran wearing pale blue markings. The slender mare recalls Svedka - father of their Champion - and Aela wonders if this bloodline is to Tephra what Lilliana's is to Taiga. She wonders if this is a relation to the star-marked stallion that she knows so well and thought makes it easier to smile softly at the filly, to appear a gentler version of herself than she otherwise is.
Appearing as a relation - and prompted by Wherewolf's rather brilliant mention of Malik - Aela lowers her head towards the yearling to play along. "I went on an adventure," the illusioned mare explains, hoping that this statement was vague enough to appeal to the young Sickle. Even if this Sundari was the quieter, more reserved type of horse, everybody ventured away from their homelands at least once.
"And these are my new friends," says the Empath, tilting her now cream-colored face to Wherewolf and Obscene. If this Malik had gone missing and was important to Sickle, then Aela assumes this Sundari would know that he was missing. The Taigans loved their familial bonds and Aela supposes that the Tephrans wouldn't be much different. "We want to take you to Malik."
It isn't completely a lie. If Gale has stolen a Northern prince and had attempted a Tephran princess, the striped palomino doesn't put it past her brother to have taken this other child. Glancing back to Obscene, she doesn't disagree that they should give her to Gale.
Just not yet, she thinks. Not until a better trade can be made.
They doused your soul in water,
but the flames raged higher.
And they called you devil's daughter,
such a pretty liar.
@Obscene @Wherewolf @Sickle