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Aiolos had traveled far and wide in his exploration of the Kawanii lands. He felt like he'd seen as much as he could see. At least in the landscape. He'd seen the vast forests and the wide meadows. He'd seen the tall mountains in the distance and even made a pilgrimage to be near to one, to stand at the very bottom and stare up at it until his neck felt sore from the position. He'd seen the long rivers and the lakes, which, like everything else, wasn't anything new to his eyes. These things he had back in his homeland. But the ocean! Once, he had followed a river, just to see where it'd go. He expected a lake. Instead, he found a body of water so large, he couldn't see the end of it. It stretched as far as the sun as it sunk down behind the water's edge. He'd been so transfixed by it, he barely was aware of night approaching. He'd settled down on the coastline to fall asleep with the crashing of the waves in his ears.

The next day, he'd walked along the coast, curious to see how far it would go. It seemed to be endless, always stretching further and further. No matter how far he walked, he couldn't find the edge of it. Crazy! He'd heard many a tale of water like this. He knew them to be true, for there were breeds as small as him who were built for the water. But to see it with his very own eyes? Amazing.

After a few days of walking along the coast, another amazing thing had happened. Or at least it was amazing to him. From a distance, while Aiolos was nibbling on a bush, he'd spied a very big stallion. There was nothing unique about this stallion. He had been dark brown in coloring, with black hair and large, white wings. What had attracted Aiolos' attention, however, were the pairs of tiny wings behind his ears. Much like his own. He never knew the larger equines could have traits just like his own Putti breed did. Did they function like his did, creating tiny gusts of wind? He wanted to ask. But tiny legs being tiny, trying to keep up with this larger beast was difficult. Aiolos kept following the trail, knowing eventually even a stallion as large as this one had to stop and rest.

Thankfully, it didn't take long. Sooner than later, the bay stopped, nosing at a gem on the ground. As Aiolos watched, the male pierced himself with his horn, letting the blood drip on the gem.

Unable to contain himself, the little Putti stallion came forward. "Why would you do that?"

Making....Charms? Who made charms with their own blood? Or made anything with their own blood, for that matter! It was disturbing, to say the least. Crazy. Was this stallion a bit dark in the head? Should he get away before something happened to him? If you could do something like this to yourself, there was no telling what you could do to someone else.

Aiolos took a step backwards, his eyes horrified and large. The big stallion noticed and a look of concern came over his face so strong, it almost made the Putti step forward out of sympathy for making this giant feel bad. Imagine, feeling bad for this one, who just pierced their own skin to sprinkle onto a rock!

"Hey. Calm down. You must not be from around here."

That was an understatement. Aiolos was not from around here. Not anywhere close to here. He had traveled so far with the other Mini herds, that he had earned a reputation among the other leaders as being unreasonable and bossy. Not that it bothered him. If you weren't doing something right, you weren't doing it right and someone had to tell them! If no one else would, he would. And did.

"Where I am from is besides the point!" Aiolos countered, dancing a little in nervousness, awaiting the moment this stallion would attack him. He could run but how far would he get? His legs were more than half the size of this bay! He'd never get far. "You just stabbed yourself! Who does that?"

"What does that matter?" Aiolos nearly screeched, so overcome with frustration at this stallion who wasn't telling him anything useful. Is this what equines around here did? Had he strayed too far from where he mostly had been circling around, to find some desolate place where the ones with horns stabbed themselves over colorful rocks in some sick ritual? For what else could this be? He knew of no one who did blood magic!

"It would explai--"

"It explains nothing!" Now he was shouting, backing away a step slowly. Fast movement might trigger this stab-happy bay to attack him. Aiolos was only a little Putti. The gusts he could conjure up would only blow this stallion's mane around. The muscles of his chest and legs were clear to Aiolos. This one was really strong. Stronger than the average of his kind.

"What kind of sick ritual is this?" Oh, no. He really should stop yelling, stop antagonizing this big bay. But he couldn't help it. He never could help it, when his brain wanted to say words. They just tumbled out. It was a miracle his mouth hadn't gotten him into trouble, yet. It was only a matter of time before the big bay got tired of his accusations and struck. Than it would all be over. "What are you?" He certainly didn't look like any monster Aiolos would have expected to run into. He looked like a big winged mixture of his own race with a Minicorn. He'd seen mixtures like this before in his travels. Some with the big wings on their backs, some with the wings at their heels. Never one up close. They looked so normal, so innocent. Maybe they weren't. Maybe everything on this side of the world was a mirror of what he knew.

Once more, Aiolos began plotting his escape from this lunatic. And, once again, he was faced with the truth that there was nowhere he could go. There was nowhere to hide and his short, stubby legs would never carry him fast enough to escape this massive stallion.

Would it be worth a try regardless, he wondered. If he was dead anyway.

"Never heard of such a thing," Aiolos couldn't stop himself from saying. At least he didn't think so. It seemed to ring a small bell inside his head, though he didn't know why. He knew most of the other terms for the different kinds of large equines in this land. Wind, Kirin, Unicorn, Flutter. Angeni was not one of them. He stood up straighter, showing off his own proudness over what he was as he answered, "I am a Putti."

The bay raised his head, a thoughtful look coming to his face. It seemed he had also not heard of Aiolos' breed.

"And what does a Putti do?"

Aiolos frowned, not wanting to tell this stallion anything more about himself. "What does an Angeni do?" he asked, instead. Besides stabbing themselves for no apparent reason.

The massive bay raised his head all the way to its natural angle as he pushed forward the charms he had been working on, intending them for closer inspection. Aiolos didn't rise to the bait, still too afraid to go any closer to this beast. That'd be the perfect opportunity to strike and he wasn't about to give this big guy the chance to do anything of the sort.

Powers. Yes, that was believable. He and all the other Minis had their own abilities. Such as, if he flapped the wings on his head, he could create little tornados of air. Not very spectacular, but useful to get at grass or other plants hidden underneath a pile of leaves or snow. He had never heard of magical blood, though. Or Walkers. The temptation to run was great, but also his curiosity was greater. It seemed this stallion had a story to tell and Aiolos wanted to hear it.

He admitted he didn't know what a Walker was and sat back on one heel to listen, keeping his distance and remaining on alert.

The bay stallion began by telling him more about what his breed did. That they were creatures from another world, or so he was told himself by his parents. He had been born here, just like all the other equines. He made it sound like they were Gods, beings far stronger and more ethereal than a normal mortal horse. By his actions, that was hard to believe. He didn't carry with him an air of self-importance. At least not beyond his own ability. Aiolos got the impression the large stallion was only as confident as was deserved. He didn't see himself above anyone else.

Walkers, on the other hand, he learned, were beasts of a different nature. Aggressive and mean-spirited, there was little to do with them to redeem them to a better nature. The best they had were the charms that the Angeni had been making when he was interrupted. They latched onto Walkers and cleared up their mind. Some went to good. Some remained the same. But it was at least something pro-active against their destructive and chaotic nature.

It was all very hard to believe, to be honest. Aiolos had been here for long enough, he would have thought he'd have run into a Walker or Angeni. But he couldn't recall ever doing so.

"I see you are doing a very...Compassionate thing here and I am sorry for interrupting you. I will leave you to it."

"If that is your wish," the bay stallion answered, bowing his head as Aiolos walked away.