Hero snorted, agitated, and lifted his head high out of Tristan's grip. He spun around, jumping free of the gate, and drew his dagger. A winged horse burst out of the undergrowth, his eyes on Hero and his ears pinned back against his head in an obvious challenge. Tris reached automatically for the pegasus' mind as the girl emerged from the trees. He adjusted his grip on his dagger, watchful and wary. He wished he could read her mind too.

"Tris?" Celidon's voice nudged its way into his mind. "Do you need me?"

"I'm not sure," he thought back, find me in case I need you?"

The Cu-sith didn't need telling twice. The connection dropped away from conscious thought, but Tristan could still sense his familiar ranging through the forest.

The girl, whoever she was, had put herself between her pegasus and Hero's gate. Tristan held his ground as the winged stallion snorted and then seemed to lose interest. His thoughts turned instead to grass and the warm feeling on the sun on his back. Hero remained still, his ears turned in the strange horse's direction.

"Easy boy," Tristan soothed in a steady voice. He didn't turn around, but he raised a steadying hand. He'd been there when Hero had been born, peering over the stable door. The words and the gesture were enough to settle him. Hero snorted a reply and turned to graze himself. He kept close to the fence, refusing to stray far from Tristan.

The girl didn't act like she was a threat. She moved past him, ignorant of his drawn blade and extended her hand out into Hero's field. The dapple-grey looked up curiously and wandered a little closer so she could touch his shoulder. Tristan snorted.

"You big flirt," he scolded his horse fondly. Hopping back up onto the fence he settled himself, his dagger in his lap. He considered the girl again. She didn't appear to know who he was. She also seemed to like Hero which was a sign of impeccably good taste.

"Hero," Tristan replied at last, managing a smile. "The best horse in the world."

He returned his dagger to its sheath and climbed back into the fence. This time he scaled it and landed in the grass on the other side. He re-captured Hero's attention almost immediately. The stallion turned and pressed his nose into Tristan's awaiting hand. He felt the familiar brush of Hero's mind against his. He shared a suddenly flurry of warm feelings, of happiness, peace and familiarity. Hero's mind wandered, part of it remembering a younger Tristan talking to him as he suckled from his mother, whilst the other eagerly recalled the mare in the stall two-along from his. Tristan laughed, running his hand the full length of hero's face.

Hopping back up onto the fence, Tristan gestured Hero closer and then slipped expertly onto his bare back. His heart ached with the familiarity of it, and the wave of total trust which flowered from Hero's mind to his own. He suddenly wished that the girl and her pegasus were elsewhere. He wanted space to think.

She however made no indication of having any thoughts of leaving him. Tristan sighed, leaning forwards to pat Hero's shoulder.

"Do you think he always think of you as 'sister'?" he wondered, catching the girl's eye as he nodded at her horse. "Or just when you try and tell him what to do?"

Tristan