<That makes sense.> Tail-shrug. <Sooner or later this will all be over and done with.> Leareth starts demorphing. 

<So I have been telling people, though I am not sure I believe it.> Tail-shake.

Leareth switches to Mindspeech as he loses Andalite thoughtspeak. :It may - probably will - prove to be complicated and messy. But, I would like there to stop being a stupid war in this galaxy, and I have copious resources and am very stubborn: 

Elsewhere, Alloran gets to the point where he can run around the field comfortably. 

<I think you should tell me stories>, he tells the foals in the evening. <Can you tell me about Valdemar?>

There are some solemn looks back and forth and one of the foals steps forward to volunteer themselves. :Valdemar was founded when Baron Valdemar ran away from a bad, bad empire with an evil emperor, alllll the way east. So far east it's by the sea. And he took his people and kept running until he'd gone as far as you could go: 

Gesture with her muzzle. :West was all Pelagirs then, people couldn't live there yet, it was full of dangerous monsters. Now the Pelagirs don't start until two hundred miles west of here. Anyway he founded a city and he called it Haven and it was a nice place. And he got very old, and then he was worried that when he was dead and his son was dead, maybe someday there would be a bad evil ruler, like in the empire he ran away from. So he prayed to ALL the gods to make that not happen! And then the Companions came: Prance prance. She looks very proud about it. 

<How did the Companions come? Were they born from ordinary horses, or by magic?>

:The first ones came out of the Grove! By magic!: More eager muzzle pointing, this time from all the foals. :That's why they were called Groveborn. Taver is Groveborn and that's why he's special and the leader. But after there were already some Companions, they had more babies the way horses do: 

<And all the gods did this? How many gods are there?>

Glances back and forth. :Ooooh, I don't know. Lots and lots, I think? But some of them are from far away and hardly anyone goes to temples for them here, like Anathei. Anathei of the something, I don't remember what He's of. People in Valdemar worship Kernos and Astera and Vkandis: 

<What are they like?>

There are looks back and forth, small hooves scuffing the grass. :I don't know? They're very big and far away? Vkandis is the sun god and he does fire-related miracles and sends prophecies sometimes, I think: 

<Which one is your favorite?>

:Ummm. Kernos, probably. Most of the Heralds worship Kernos. He's supposed to be the god of good luck in battle, only I don't know what that really means: 

:There were legends about miracles where He possessed His warrior monks and made them good at fighting! But that's supposed to have happened before Valdemar was even founded: 

<That sounds like a useful sort of thing to be an expert in. I can see why the Heralds would prefer it. Are the gods - allied with each other, do they have non-overlapping areas of responsibility?>

The foals are shuffling their feet a bit now. :Umm, I think some of Them have areas They're responsible for? Like Vkandis in Karse and the Star-Eyed Goddess in the Pelagirs. I don't know if they're allied with each other: 

<But Kernos does all good luck in battle, both sides of battles? Does he prefer that there be battle, so that people can have good luck in it?>

Scuff scuff. :...I don't know? That doesn't seem right. Maybe it's just good luck for the side that's the good guys: 

<That makes sense. The Andalite god chooses the peoples that fight for their freedom and the freedom of others over the ones that enslave and destroy.>

:Really? Oooh, and do they do miracles about it?:

<I don't know. I think maybe Matirin's ship coming here was a miracle.>

They shuffle. They seem kind of uneasy. 

:What - for?: one foals says eventually. :This isn't that god's territory, it's different gods here: 

<So that we would have the resources to defeat the Yeerks. Our god does not have territory in exactly the same way, and insofar as he does it is probably all of the galaxy. And he need only have adjusted the place they left from, anyway.>

Worried looks. :Are the Yeerks going to come looking here now? Because Valdemar helped you fight them?: 

<No, don't worry. They took lots of precautions to make sure the Yeerks could not follow us, and the Yeerks have been defeated and forced to stop.>

They nod, seriously, but still seem uncomfortable. Not obviously about the idea of the Yeerks finding Velgarth, though, just...in general. They look at him silently.