It wasn’t often that Seiram was taken off guard simply by a soquili’s presence. He had encountered enough (and dealt with his father enough) that few managed to actually awe him. Yet, the stallion before him, the first lung he had seen, having almost believed them to be legend, was doing just that.
It took him just a few seconds to gather his thoughts, though it felt like a fair amount longer, but he shook himself out of it quickly enough and gave a polite nod in the other stallion’s direction. “Greetings stranger, my name is Seiram, welcome to my lands.”
It was a casual claim, but a claim nonetheless. He had built a life here with Alexandria, and this new stallion should at least know there were others that already considered this their territory.
“A lovely home it is,” came the bright, airy reply. Polaris regarded the stranger in turn, though he felt no ill will from him, despite the gentle warning in his words. Still, he was a stranger, and with no detail following him about perhaps it was best not to fully reveal his titles and everything else that came with his usual responsibilities. “I’m Polaris, and I’m a bit turned about. I managed to slip past my gu--companions while traveling purely by accident you see, and I thought I would enjoy the local views.”
Seiram relaxed a bit at that. “Ah, the travels of youth.” He let the bit about the guards slide, wondering if perhaps the stallion was a bit younger than he had originally thought, who knew how lungs aged. “I remember my early travels. Always exciting to meet a new face, pretty mares especially.” That had been quite a time for him really, finally out of his father’s shadow, thinking he had all the wisdom in the world at his disposal since he’d grown up believing he was of a chosen lineage, and finally realizing that wisdom came with both experience and deliberation.
“Stallions are rather lovely as well,” Polaris mused aloud, bringing Seiram back to the conversation before the lung blushed fiercely, the bits of light almost pulsing around him. “I mea--I..”
Seiram didn’t have it in him to let the poor boy flounder, and chuckled softly. “I didn’t mean to make assumptions, I was just thinking of my own adventures. Is that why you slipped your companions? I think if you go north and then turn west at the split tree there are some stallions that many consider rather handsome in a herd not too far off.”
Polaris went from blushing to openly gaping at the other stallion, who had so seamlessly moved from reminiscing to trying to wingman for him that he was reluctantly impressed. Impressed and speechless unless he wanted to make even more of a fool of himself. How he had ended up the ruler of anything was beyond him. Mere moments with Seiram and he felt like a colt again. “Right, er, thank you,” he managed to get out, turning and barely managing not to bolt as he all but fled the situation, feeling far more like an idiot than a monarch. He managed a brisk walk for several minutes before breaking into a trot, and it was a while after that, when he caught himself turning west at a split tree, that he realized that it probably looked to Seiram as if he was practically running off in desperation to find the handsome stallions he had referred to.
It was then that Polaris determined to never again travel to this part of the world.
Seiram watched the other stallion hurry away, and mentally shrugged. Perhaps lungs weren’t all that special after all, though he tried to fix the features in his mind for when he recounted this small tale to Alexandria when they caught up for the day.
