#moonshadow mounts

Well, I didn’t think it was very funny, but Ethari was rather amused.

We were grooming our mounts just the other day, and I was working on Lachir’s tail. I always tell her how pretty she is when I groom her, because she likes to feel pretty. Ethari told Tethu, “You’re pretty too, boy. Yes you are.”

So I told Lachir, “Yes, but you’re prettier, sweetheart. You’re the prettiest mount in all the Forest, and I love you, my good girl.” And she preened and snorted at Tethu.

Ethari just chuckled and kept brushing Tethu’s fur. “You may be right, love,” he said calmly. “But ‘pretty’ won’t save her from us in a fight.”

Tethu huffed in agreement and gave Ethari a supportive lick on the cheek. And then he eyed Lachir speculatively, like he was legitimately about to pounce on her!

The undignified and protective noise I made as I clutched at her tail! And then she yipped at me for messing up her tailfeathers! Ethari was in stitches. Or rather, he was about to be.

But then Tethu let out a single low growl, just as I started to think about taking a single step toward Ethari to tickle him half to death for his words. And I reconsidered, very wisely, after calculating my body weight versus Tethu’s, and the fact that he has claws and fangs, and he loves Ethari more than he loves me.

Ethari laughed for a solid five minutes over how quickly I noped out and dropped the issue, but he did help me straighten Lachir’s rumpled feathers, too. Because although he is a terrible tease, he is my sweet husband, too. A most Moonshadow combination in the most handsome of elves, at whose feet I am entirely helpless.

Ride with Runaan through the forest. We each travel for work sometimes, but it’s so relaxing to have nowhere in particular to go. Some days, we just let our mounts choose a direction, and while they lead the way, we’ll just chat about anything, everything, and nothing at all. It might seem helplessly domestic, but I love talking with my husband. He’s so deeply thoughtful that I know he’ll never dismiss something I say, and he’s always got thoughts to share.

We always come home with his hair full of flowers or grass heads or adoraburrs, too--entirely my fault, how can I not decorate him--and then I get to comb it out and braid it again.

They do, and it is, anon. What I’ve been puzzling over is this:

Does this mean that Runaan’s a cat person because he loves an elf with a cat mount, and Ethari’s a dog person because he loves an elf with a dog mount?

Or vice versa? Is Runaan a dog person and Ethari a cat person, because of their own mount preferences?

It’s probably both, since their cat acts like a dog and their dog acts like a cat.

I think Ethari’s warm, open loyalty (and casual disregard for the state of his hair) makes him the dog person, as far as standard Earth animal stereotypes go. 

And Runaan’s poised, perfectly groomed, aloof, and stabby. Very catlike indeed.

A Good Boy doggo will love anyone and everyone. Friendly, happy, easygoing, eager to please, wants to shower everyone with love and affection--that’s exactly who Ethari is.

But cats are far more particular with their affections. If a cat deigns to approach you, if he dares to relax in your presence, if he actually runs toward you when you come home and gets all soft at the sight of you and purrs and physically claims you and snuggles against you--you’re his favorite person. Runaan’s 100% a cat person.

Ethari and I have had our mounts since before we were married. By the time Rayla came to live with us, she already had an… unfortunate habit of calling my Moonstrider “Runaan”–and the pretentious beast would even answer to it–because she’s tall and leggy and a bit high strung. Her real name is Lachir. That pose you see Callum do with her? Ethari calls that our hero pose Moon help me. 

Tethu, the Shadowpaw, is a far better fit for Ethari, and, I admit, more approachable, as is his master. Like Ethari and I, our mounts are wildly different, yet perfectly paired. As you may have noticed, Lachir has an appetite for the crunchier things in life. Tethu, on the other hand, will eat just about anything.

Tethu will bring Lachir something to eat if he thinks the Moonstrider isn’t eating enough, and if that isn’t Ethari to a T, I don’t know what is.