Morveren loved Minnow. Then again, Morveren loved everyone.

How did she do it, Thoth wondered? He watched his familiar bounce along out of the corner of his eye, her eyes never leaving Minnow’s face, like an adoring puppy-dog. She thrashed her tail from side to side and made her whole body wiggle whenever the girl acknowledged her. When Minnow bent down to scratch the vaporeon behind a fin, she made a delighted brrrr! noise and jumped a little in the air. Morv still didn’t speak or think in words, but Thoth could imagine what she’d be thinking if she did: I like this one!! Can we keep this one?!

Thoth didn’t really think anything of it, except his usual exasperated wonder at his familiar’s ability to make new friends, until Minnow said that Morveren reminded her of home. That caught his attention.

“Are you from the seaside?” He asked with a spark of interest. If she was, that might explain why Morv was all of her – even more than usual. It would make sense that the water-fox could sense a kindred spirit.

The pause to remove the mare’s bridle seemed to settle the girl a bit more. Thoth couldn’t read her body language especially well, but she was more talkative, opening up a little about where she’d come from. The name Xara was vaguely familiar in a nagging kind of way, like her tail. It wasn’t until Minnow mentioned the Alliance that it clicked into place. The arrival of the alien Alliance guard with the double-tail had caused enough of a stir in the castle for Thoth to remember it, even if he’d never actually met the woman himself.

“Not necessarily, but I think it’s the same one.” He frowned slightly. “I haven’t noticed any other people with split monkey tails. It’s kind of a distinctive feature.”

The mare plodded obediently along behind them, her head held low. Fortunately the castle was only another mile and a half or so, but they might still have to pause for a break before then. With all the mud over the mare’s legs, it was impossible to see if she had any injuries which might make walking uncomfortable for her. The sooner he got her back to his barn and cleaned up, the better.

“I’m polylingual,” he told Minnow as he glanced back over his shoulder to check that the mare was keeping pace with them. “That means I can speak any language if I hear it once, including animal languages. What’s…” He paused, thinking. Aja wasn’t a word he recognised, but presumably referred to the horse in some way. The castle guard from Xara had also arrived with a fancy horse. “By ‘aja’ do you mean a horse? Like,” he gestured to the mare, “the type of animal.”


MASTER OF THE ORBIS . MASTER OF THE WATER ELEMENT . SON OF AURA