Utterly confusing, this new intruder on their bathing - but not entirely unwelcome. You see, Elain was an innocent - utterly unfamiliar with anything that should make her cautious of another. She had either been alone and in the wild or sequestered and well-beloved all of her days. The concept that one should fear - or that there were even such things as - male counterparts to women… well, she had never met nor seen nor smelled one. It was a part of the culture, young women raised without the influence of their brutish counterparts. A few were kept around, of course, or else she would not exist-- but that did not mean that anyone of her mere one year of time spent in that home would have been allowed within even shouting distance, much less sight, of one.
Her mother had wanted her unstained by mortal wiles and wantonness. She had thought herself destined for the maidens that served only earth and never themselves by the manner of her upbringing, as best as a yearling could foresee without Glenna’s gift of the sight.
Relke of course does not realize the depth of her companions lack of experience - seems confused by the time Elain has asked her question and managed to look at her for an answer. "He’s not that short, can you not smell him in the water?" She shakes her head, clarifying, "Him? He?" her bemusement is clear, "I can smell, only, I do not understand…" In the same unsafe and unabashed behavior, she extends her muzzle in politeness - and it is only by circumstance that when she exchanges breath that she notices one telltale feature she most certainly would not understand.
"Oh! Is it that voices grow deeper with birthing? I have never heard of such a thing myself, but mother did deign to tell me that ‘when the bag grows, so does the lady’. I had no idea she had meant voice and scent and crest as well!" She is of course, utterly wrong about what she thought she had seen - and the reasons for his different scent. "Yearlings are not permitted with the foaling mothers, you see." She turns back brightly to Relke, "Is there a customary congratulations I should perform? You both seem… I feel as though I am putting a hoof into it..." a bit bashful now, she backs up a step from her position of greeting and resumes a spot closer to the companion she’d known lnoger.
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