( written for the october cdc prompt "hay" !! )

Of all the different kinds of animals that Hush had encountered since he had been reincarnated into this world, he found that the kind he saw the least were equines. He wasn't sure why they were so absent, since with their particular diets, they logically probably should have been able to survive better than all of them that needed to hunt in order to survive. Still, he hadn't particularly seen a lot of horses in his travels, and he in particular hadn't really seen any horses since he had joined the Typhoon. He supposed that perhaps it was because of the environment that the Typhoon lived in. After all, it wasn't as if they had a ton of grass around for grazing in, considering the majority of the territory seemed to be sand and sea, not exactly an environment fit for some sort of horse king. And as far as he knew, this was really the only reason that he could think of as to why there were so many different kinds of other animals he had run into, yet horses has been so inexplicably absent.

Now the reason that he was pondering this was because, at the moment, a horse was actually trotting through the little "main" area of the Typhoon, near the tavern, lugging several large blocks of hay around with him in a rather slow fashion. The horse npc seemed to be a member of the group, although not one that Hush had encountered before, and he found himself staring rather embarrassingly as a result, not even aware of how fascinated he looked until the npc looked towards him, a little whinnying whining leaving the equine's throat as he questioned softly, "What's up there little guy, cat get your tongue? Get it, cause you're a cat?" The horse chuckled a bit, and Hush, broken from his reverie, blushed beneath his fur and quickly nodded, scrambling to write on the ground in front of him, "I'M SORRY SIR! I GUESS I JUST GOT CAUGHT OFF GUARD BECAUSE I HAVEN'T SEEN MANY OTHER HORSES AROUND. VERY SORRY." He smiled sheepishly at the npc, who, after reading his message, just laughed and said as he shook his head, "Don't apologize kid, it's fine. I understand. Although, if you really wanna make it up to me, could you help me lug these bales of hay over to the back of the tavern? They make a real good meal, and they do wonders for creepy Halloween events." Hush blinked in surprise as this, having never actually celebrated Halloween before and finding himself fascinated, before he eagerly nodded, quickly moving to grip one of the bales by the rope that held it together, grunting with the effort as he followed after the horse to the back of the tavern, beginning to stack them.

As Hush and the npc lugged the huge bales back and forth and stacked them, the small male still found himself staring from time to time, but now not because of the fact that he hadn't seen a horse before commonly. Now it was because of just how much the horse npc reminded him of his past. It reminded him of when he had been known as Link, the Hero of the Wild. He could still faintly remember flashes of him, panting and sweaty and full of adrenaline, leaping utop the back of a horse and wrestling with control of the creature, trying to find his next loyal steed. A small part of him found that he missed that. He missed when he had been able to ride upon a stallion's back, the wind running through his hair and a happy yell of excitement leaving him. He could even envision himself doing the same now, tucked down close against the back of some horse friend, letting the other carry him swiftly along as he struggled to stay upright and enjoy himself. He doubted it would be as nice as when he was a Hylian, but it would still probably be nice. Still, that was all in the past now, and he quickly shook his head to focus his thoughts at the task at hand.

Before too long, the task was done and all of the hale bales had been lugged over to behind the tavern for storage, and Hush found that he felt thoroughly exhausted. He practically dragged himself back around to the front of the building, the horse npc clapping him gently on the back and giving him a hearty thanks before moving to walk off to whatever it was that he was doing next. Meanwhile, Hushsound just found his eyes drooping, a heavy and exhausted sigh leaving him as he sunk down to his chest, sighing and and stretching out his legs in random directions as he took a moment of rest, smelling strongly of hay and feeling like he could pass right out on the spot.

Hush had been resting comfortably against the ground for a while, his eyes nearly closed, when footsteps began to approach him, reaching his ears and making him shift a bit. For a moment he contemplated just continuing to rest, not acknowledging the presence of the others at all, but then a loud quack disturbed him from his rest, making him jump. His eyes snapped open, focusing at first on Inkquill, before his gaze then moved up to Darksouls, as well as Eirny. He felt his eyes grow extremely wide at the two, having never seen the gigantic bird or the reindeer before. Perhaps he had seen them around before briefly, but never so up close, and he certainly hadn't met them yet. He just sort of stared for a long moment, before realizing that he was being rude by just staring. Very slowly, the feline pushed himself into a sitting up position, his body swaying from side to side in exhaustion. He let himself stable out before reaching a paw forward to claw into the ground in front of him, feeling a bit awkward that he couldn't introduce himself to either of them with his words, "UH... HELLO THERE, YOU TWO. SORRY YOU HAD TO SEE ME IN SUCH A STATE, I'M JUST A BIT TIRED FROM HELPING TO MOVE THIS HAY. I DON'T BELIEVE THAT WE'VE EVER MET BEFORE... EITHER OF YOU. MY NAME IS HUSHSOUND, WHAT ARE YOURS?" He was still swaying on the spot, and didn't look much like he was in the mood for introductions and all of that, but he didn't want to be rude. Perhaps he was sacrificing his own comfort at the moment, but he didn't mind that much. After all, new clanmates to hang out with! Or rather, old clanmates to hang out with.