[AW] you left me to die at troy

[Below Zero]

Below Zero

my frost philosophy will put no curse on me

Bel was at a standstill, at least in terms of her thoughts. Generations of fine tuning the mental awareness of when danger was near seemed to be chiming off the charts, but visually (both taking in the strange male and the surroundings) nothing seemed out of place. The air wasn't stilted with silent dread. The natural world hadn't gone silent. Nothing was out of order, and yet those bells continued to clang, telling her to escape before the shark swam around the reef with jaws agape. How was she to know danger took the form of equine, and prejudice was the catalyst to the situation.

It was another first for the beached treader. She tilted her head when he smiled at her, repeating her comment of liking it colder, laughing and calling it insane. She managed an almost shy smile back, gaze dropping in a natural demure, "I wouldn't call it . . . insane, exactly. We all have a preference to weather based on the pools we swim in. Seaweed seems greener in another's pond, but we are still a product of our homes and the regions we are raised in. I swam in from the Polar Arctic. I got tired of having to swim for my life, sharks, orcas, seals and polar bears hunt there freely." She explained after a moment. It was the best answer she could give, even as a shot of pain etched across a healing heart, the same pain briefly reflected in her eyes. It was the effect of the shark attack that led her to leave, so it was mostly true . . . but it was the Pod's decision to leave Polar behind that ultimately led to her own decision to leave the pod behind.

She shook the lingering pain away, trying hard to center herself. Grass was beneath her feet, not frozen water. The rain fell in sheets, not snow falling in a blizzard. Novus. Not the arctic. Novus. Pol was . . . already gone. She glanced back up at him after she'd recentered herself, offering another shy smile, "So, I guess I prefer colder weather in effect. Better than heat, at the least." He then repeats the name of her species, even asking if that is what she was. She nods slowly, another warm smile, "Yes, named after the water vapors we produce to regulate our temperatures in colder climates. Trying to take shelter on an ice shelf in the middle of a blizzard does little help - but through our vapors we can keep the temperature around our bodies higher to help protect it." That or dive below the water's surface if it was safer.

He then asks a question she'd not expected before, Do you not prefer one more than the other? She visibly pauses at the question, her gaze turning towards the sky as she ponders over it, "Once upon a time I'd have been able to answer that in a heart beat - now I'm not so certain. I love to explore and see new things, and much of the ocean repeats. It might be a new reef but once you acknowledge the different layout of the coral and anemones, it's the same fish, the same species. On land, it's so much different!" Her eyes seemed to come alive, her smile radiant in that moment as she speaks, "There's a never ending amount of types of terrain. Rocky Mountains. Grasslands, Forests and Swamps, so diverse and different. I could walk Novus for the rest of my life and still find new things!" And it was true, it was that love for discovery and adventure that had been cultivated the first time she swam through the ruins of a lost city swallowed by the sea.

He starts to walk towards the city then, even as his gaze remains on her, agreeing that it suffocates, but once more offering to accompany at least on the walk back. It was the ask for conversation that had her agreeing, turning back towards the direction she'd come. His next question has her pausing. Tell me more of these Vapor Treaders? Asking about their numbers before introducing himself as Torix. She is quiet for a moment, thoughtful in her response, "We are of the stars." She finally responds, and for the first time since hearing the stories as a pup, they ring true for her. She wasn't a creature of this world, her people came from another, traveling through space to reach this planet. "We aren't large in number, we're not a predatory species after all, and live in a place of high number of predator species. The pairs usually have enough pups to replace the number of pod members we lose to sharks and orcas each year. We're hard to find though - keeping to ourselves. I think I'm the first to leave the Pod . . in, well; ever." She falls quiet, even as her gaze travels to the sky, as if imagining the stars that could pinpoint the different galaxies, and one might be the world her people came from, "We're really not that interesting . . . Just a weird looking horse." She mused.

She turns her cyan gaze back on him, both sets focusing, and a smile reflecting in the eye, softening the harshness of the slit pupil, "My name is Bel, and it's a pleasure to meet you Torix." The mare responded, even as she kept a distance between them, still cautious, still careful; those warning bells still ringing. And she didn't survive this long by being foolish. Caution to make sure she'd survive longer still.

Thoughts
Speech

@Vercingtorix

Notes: Poor girl has no idea what she's gotten into.

i feel no cold, i feel no fear inside my mind
Now I'm full of energy