A short king and his tall partner
They always mistook him for scrawny - shaky - flimsy. If he survived the winter alone, maybe they'd give him another chance. But the Slate did't have slots open. He's intruding and trespassing the first time they meet. Myst-Step gives him hell because to them, he's a stranger. A nomad, a threat. They have to keep her Slate safe at all costs.
But then he returns, horn aglow with pale light - and it's so alien and bizarre.
Begrudgingly, he's allowed into the Slate, largely just to watch him and discover what this weird carving does.
Curiosity has gripped them.
Watches him change shape - use clever tactics to trip up prey - and that humility and compassion soaking into every action around other Serrs.
He's happy to be in a group again - at all. He feels so much safer, and he wants to pull his weight. Do his part, not let their kindness go wasted.
While some of the elderly in Myst-Step's slate are a little panicked over the horn glow and the unheard of shape shifting, she thinks it incredibly valuable and fascinating.
About their song--
-- Myst-Step Courts Spyn-Pelt -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoRflRCNGbc
-- (( Lyrics if needed: https://genius.com/Hozier-nfwmb-lyrics ))
Hozier explained it thusly: “This song is about watching the world burn and realizing that the person next to you is completely unfazed by it – and may have even been the one to start the fire themselves”
Myst-Step knows the weather is getting worse ; that Serrs are dying and that their numbers are thin ; mirroring how human beings nearly faced extinction more than once. (In fact, 6 instances of near-extinction have been recorded, and there may be more.)
But their gaze turns to Spyn-Pelt and he's just ... unphased. If anything, he wants to get up close and personal with the Ethereals who may be causing such calamities. Is it stupidity? No, he's shown himself too clever for that.
It's bravery - temperance - wisdom.
Comforted, in a way ; they are awed by his comfort with the terrible and unnatural events happening all around them ; and then it hits Myst-Step like an avalanche.
They've spent so long being a rock for an entire Slate of Serrs, not realizing that they desperately needed one to lean on too.
At last, they have found their rock. At last, they can lean and rest.
Spyn-Pelt may be skinny and small, but he's mentally and emotionally very strong and firm.
Worldbuilding, Spyn-Pelt, Myst-Step, Species, Art © Me
Do not steal my art - nor use it to train AI systems. This is your only warning.