She was received graciously by the pale-faced mare and she felt a little silly for the initial worry that always worked its way up in her head over moments like this. Of course Canis’ dam wouldn’t be any sort of an awful woman, set to drive away anyone who approached as submissively as Encelia moved. She smiled as she nodded gently at Sinaet’s assumption that Encelia already knew who exactly she was. Despite the mare’s calm acceptance of her presence, nerves still flicker briefly across Encelia’s face, constantly worried that she was about to do the wrong thing.
It wasn’t until Sinaet said, He speaks highly of you, referring to Canis that she briefly forgot her nervousness. A clear look of astonishment crossed over her solid pale face and she ushered a soft, “He does?” With awe that likely shouldn’t have been there. Encelia should not have been very surprised that Canis enjoyed her company and spoke kindly of her to his mother, given how close they’d grown since they’d first met. Canis was her friend, but not only that, he was her first friend and her very best friend. Encelia was grateful for his presence in her life, no matter how much the ache to be so much more burned inside her every time she looked at him.
Maybe she had thought that with so many lovely mares and beautiful new children to fawn over, he didn’t need to think of her so often, or talk about her that much.
As Sinaet posed the question of her time initially spent with Canis, Encelia gave a light bob of her head. “Yes, he was the first one to come across me in the Commons,” she explained, “I had decided to spend the day away from the Badlands, but I’d never left home before.” It was a kinder way to say what she’d done, which was to abandon her family in all actuality. It wouldn’t be polite to throw that sort of information at Sinaet when they barely knew one another as it was. “I didn’t want to go back home,” she phrased it that way instead, “and Canis offered to allow me to explore with him.”
She thought briefly back to the times when it had been just them, curled up to share warmth beneath the stars at night. Her heart hammered in her chest and, without realizing it, a smile had found its way to her brown lips. Where her gaze had been skipping around before and she’d even shuffled her hooves with a sort of nervously built energy, Encelia was now standing still and appeared rather peaceful, reflecting on those wonderful memories. “I am so happy he did,” she admitted, looking back at his dam with her smile growing, “and so very grateful to him.”
Always would be, too.
“Do you like Tinuvel?” She asked curiously, not even aware how naturally comfortable she was falling into sharing a conversation with Sinaet. Something about the mare set her at ease just as naturally as her son did. “I remember Canis told me he’d come from the Desert, I’m from the Badlands,” she mentioned off-handedly, in case that was not a fact that Canis had ever shared with his mother. “The cold has taken getting used to, but it’s so green here when it isn’t covered in snow.”
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