Bel was in a state of uncertainty over this most odd island. Every inch of it seemed to vibrate in a way that made her ponder on if it was alive or not. Of course, there was a part of her that knew it was alive, with all the greenery around her . . . . it was a whole DIFFERENT level of living she was pondering it having. A curious sense of potential sentience seemed to radiate from every plant, every creature, every grain of sand. It led to the question: was the island watching her just as closely as she was observing it.

A sudden rain suddenly started, and the mare visible relaxed as the water touched her hide, slicking the soft down fur of her body. It took her a mere moment to realize something was strange with this rain though – the color being off, a startling green that seemed to fit in much better with the surrounding forest rather than the vibrant blue normally associated with water. A shift of the spectrum, a shift of nature – further proof of the strangeness.

Her gaze immediately shifted to the forest, the sand, the creatures, to see if it held any strange properties, the mare herself moving to find shelter (she didn’t need falling ill from a mysterious rain that might carry disease. Her eyes lit upon the branches of the trees, and her eyes widened as the rain touched the leaves and wood, and flowers bloomed almost instantaneously. She headed deeper into the forest, towards one of the lowest laying branches, her thick fluke of a tail flicking in curiosity. Rearing up, she touched her nose to one of the flowers, blinking the rain from her eyes, before grasping it gently and pulling it free.

The flower fluttered to her feet as she whispered thanks and an apology to the tree that had sacrificed the bloom for the inquisitive mare. She nosed around the petals and stems of the flower, staring at it from every angle, and snorting as pollen entered her slitted nostrils. Nothing odd appeared to make up the flower, but she couldn’t deny the oddness of it. She finally awkwardly manhandled (or equine-handled) the flower, carefully placing it behind her ear so it wasn’t a wasted and abandoned gift from the tree.

Any other horse likely would have used telekinesis for the entire range – pulling the flower free of the tree, rotating it in the air to view it, and then placing it upon their body. Bel hadn’t grown up with the ability, and often forgot she had it even now, tending to do things the far more difficult way – by herself.

She finally noticed then that the rain had suddenly stopped, cyan eyes snapping wide as she glanced around before her eyes lit on a sudden path that had seemed to appear from nowhere. She glanced up at the trees in question, “Am I supposed to follow it?” She asked the trees, not really expecting an answer. A few did seem to sway, whether from a breeze or in answer she couldn’t guess, but they swayed in the direction of the path and it solidified the decision in her mind.

The mare held her head high as she began down it, the emerald rain-bloomed blossom still tucked next to her ear, against the ridge of her dorsal fin at her forehead. Her steps lit on the path gently, her steps measured and careful (least she trip herself on land), and her gaze sweeping and watching. The path was here for a reason, which led her to believe that it might just lead her to the island secrets, like she’d been wanting this entire time.



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There was so much that was a sudden change tot he island. Green rain. Suddenly flowers blooming in moments, and then a new face popping up. She glanced to the male curiously as he appeared from just about nowhere, his mane disheveled and his body wet - clearly having been caught in the sudden and strange rain that had lasted only moments. She glanced towards the flowers for a moment, not certain if he'd search her out - of course she did seem to be the only one around so suddenly, so she should have known he would.

As a flower was tucked against her ear and dorsal fin, she glanced to the male, his drawled tone a greeting. She tilted her head, an amused smile crossing her features at his greeting, before rolling her shoulders in a shrug, "Secrets." She said briefly, her gaze once more on the flowers above, before training her eyes on the new path, following it with her eyes in curiosity of where it would lead, "This island has many of them, I intend to dig them all up." She explaine dfurther, before turning her attention back to him, her dual set of cyan eyes blinking at different times, before she stepped onto the path, "Sure, I'm planning to follow this path at the moment. It wasn't here before the rain . . . a lot of stuff wasn't here before it. I think the Island is starting to agree to show me what it's hiding, and I don't intend to let it take back the offer."

She began to move along the path, assuming he will follow, as she introduced herself, "My name is Below Zero, but most everyone calls me Bel. My full name is a touch of a mouthful." She greeted, her fluked tail swaying slightly with her light steps as she followed the path laid out, trailing through the forest, occasionally pausing at forks and watching the way the trees swayed before choosing one path to follow. The island had given her the path, she assumed it would also direct her down the right forks of it, "What brings you to the island than, Coyote? Here to explore, or to find the treasure it's supposed to hide?" She asked after a moment of quiet, glancing at him as she voiced her curiosity.

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@Huehuecoyotl, and others free to join in at any time.

The female was curious of the island, particularly the changes that had come with the rain. It had been caused by something - clearly. It had been meant for a particular reason. The flower adorning her head now was proof enough that it wasn't a normal rain (the emerald hue of it wasn't forgotten), but was the now visible path that she was preparing to follow that proved the oddness of the rain. What sort of rain grew a path, it wasn't exactly something heard of. She glanced around curiously, wondering what might be at the end of it as the male spoke again. She turned briefly to glance at him with the obviously dominant larger set of eyes (the second set were still glancing about to see what secrets the path alone might have. She snorted lightly, a half smile slipping onto her lean muzzle, "Now there will be no digging up bodies on this expedition, unless it's digging our living ones up from sand traps and similar traps we may find." She mused, before her eyes turned a little more determined, glancing back at the pathway, "Actually we should be cautious for that sort of thing . . . As a little fry I'd heard plenty of stories of sand traps, where the land beneath the sand was weak and could swallow you up with out a thought. We will want to make sure to stay clear of anything that might cost us our health." She didn't feel that mentioning it could also cost them their life was needed.

She mentioned her plan of attack as she stepped onto path ready to go as she glanced at him when he spoke, nodding once, "I'd rather believe it to be an invitation than a trap, but it's revealed something, and I'd rather see what it has to show me, before the path disappears, should it do so." The stallion stepped onto the path behind her, clearly still along for the trek and Bel started down the pathway, hooves making soft sounds against the broken grass-stalks of the well-used trail. She glanced back occasional as the male spoke, nodding once when he spoke his full name for her, and she had to grin slightly, "Personally, I think your name is a bit more of a mouthful than mine. I don't think I could pronounce it even if I tried . . . I'll stick to Coyote."

The birds song ahead, while small creatures seemed to scuttle by quietly as the passed along the path, the vegetation growing steadily thicker with the apparent passing into the deeper forested area of the island. She moved carefully, relieved that for the most part the path was steadily the same of trekked down grasses and foliage. Occasionally the path morphed with bits of rock and sand worn through the grassy passage, hinting at heavier footing through the area, but as of this point no splits off or forks in the path had been seen - or at least none to Bel's untrained eye.

Time was passed by conversation however, as Bel and Coyote chatted, talking about their reason for being on the island. Sje nodded lightly to his words, slowly so they might walk closer to side by side rather than single-file. The path was large enough to allow it - just barely - and it made it easier to hold a conversation as well, "I'm not to certain I'm interested in what ever this treasure might be. Not because of what it could be and couldn't be, and what help it might bring - but because I'm far more interested in trying to figure out this island. From the first moment I stepped on it, it felt off. . . . wrong . . . and walking along that bridge of hardened lava twists my heart at the sight of the creatures of the tree trapped in a frozen state, as if glorifying their sudden death. There is something weird about this island . . . I just want to know what it might be."

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@Huehuecoyotl, and others free to join in at any time.

The BEST revenge... is to stay fabulous.

The two made an odd clash, one of ivory and sapphire, the other emerald and onyx, but they were meshing together surprisingly well (and from a stark difference in personality traits – one far more tricky and playful than the other’s calm and kind – if not at times spunky – personality). She tilted her head when his response was with a quip, about bodies having the best stories to tell. She blinked once, and then twice, and finally a third time before her finned ears pinned to the side in shocked confusion, before her eyes playfully narrowed, and her voice mellowed to a gentleness of an individual speaking with a wayward foal, “Now, now, we needn’t dig up the dead just for some stories to tell. It’s both unsightly and undignified.” She tilted her head as if momentarily contemplating shoving him into a sand trap and if the world really would be deprived. She finally decided it would be too much work and merely allowed him his moment.

The topic of large, long and over the top names were met with an agreement of them being far too difficult to struggle over, before the idea of traveling the path to see what the island intended to show before disappearing on itself was deemed wise. “I don’t know if we’ll find delight or despair at the end of the path . . . but I certainly hope for the former.” But so much of the island set her at odds, and the lava bridge was just the beginning of it. Creepy and out of the element, “Perhaps I’m sympathetic to my fellows of the sea,” The aqua-equine mused softly, her gaze cast back towards the very bridge they spoke of before ripping her gaze from it and beginning to walk the path calmly, “But this island mirrors the creepiness of the lava bridge. There’s just something about it that I cannot find delight in. I’m too busy being fully on guard. You can see the others that tranverse this place have the same thoughts. We’re all more cautious now, more careful . . . more guarded.” It’s as if no place could be considered safe.

As they moved, she glanced when he spoke hoping that worse wouldn’t come to worse, and indeed they would come out unscathed. She smiled faintly before her dual-eyed gaze turned ahead once more, “I do fear it will be only luck that would play a hand in us surviving safely . . . beyond that . . . this Island might give its’ all to ensure the exact opposite.”

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@Huehuecoyotl, and others free to join in at any time.

The BEST revenge... is to stay fabulous.