Pilar nodded, listening to Dia carefully through her delightful drawl. There was something comforting about hearing the golden mare talk—perhaps it had something to do with Pilar’s appreciation for the atypical that made it worthwhile. After all, her inwardly curved ears were pretty different too. Yet it was not just Dia’s voice that Pilar liked. She always had something insightful to say.

“Yes, that does make sense,” she started in reply, but it seemed Pilar wasn’t the only one who had an interest in things that were just a little bit different. Sokka had apparently noticed her ears and interrupted to ask exactly why they were curved instead of straight like Dia’s and his own. Pilar, having been asked that question many times since she left her own Marwari herd, smiled at the colt’s curiosity.

“Oh it’s okay,” she told Dia. “I don’t mind explaining.”

Sokka’s inquisitiveness reminded her of her own when she was his age. Though having grown up around Marwaris, Pilar remembered the first time she saw straight ears and how strange she thought that looked. It was only until she got older that she realized her ears were the odd ones. Of course, when Pilar asked her grandmother why, she was happy to explain.

“My ears are curved so I can hear the fates,” Pilar offered, echoing what her grandmother had told her many years ago. However, Pilar had never been sure she’s ever heard the fates. Perhaps they don’t speak unless they have to, she thought to herself. As unsure as she was, it still seemed like a viable enough explanation to offer the young colt.


pilar

photo © Sally Mann