[AW] gold dust woman [relic contest]

[Seraphina]

Patrols, she supposed, were as good an excuse as any to feel productive whilst continuing her search; valuable as getting her hooves on the relic would be for her country, she couldn’t help but feel that it was simply a distraction from her duties, pointless as they might be for the time being. It wasn’t as though she had any authority to question any stranger that might be wandering the Oasis for the time being, but, unsure of what else to do, she tried to keep an eye out for trouble nonetheless. She knew loyalty, but she didn’t understand ambition, motivation - she wasn’t entirely sure why she was doing any of this. Her hooves carried her along the rocky of the Oasis mechanically, odd eyes scanning the pristine blue surface for anything that might be of interest. For once, she didn’t feel like she was drowning in her own sweat while wandering Solterra, shaded comfortably by the ancient trees that leaned just above the water’s surface. Seraphina had always felt bizarre when she visited the Oasis – as much as she could feel anything, at least. There was something about the liveliness of the landscape, the way that it sprung so vibrant and clean in the midst of the desert, that should have felt revitalizing, but it made her feel exhausted. Maybe that was why she rarely visited it, unless in desperate need of food or water. She didn’t feel right when she wandered the beautiful shorelines or glanced at her distorted reflection in the miraculously blue lake.

As she approached the waterfall, cascading down the slick, brown rocks with a soft, slurred rumble, she caught sight of something glimmering in one of the shallow pools that had gathered in the slopes of the rocks. It was, unfortunately, at the top, so she supposed that she had some climbing to do. Seraphina was not unaccustomed to climbing dangerous slopes, but the slickness of the rocks that surrounded the waterfall made them especially precarious; she kept to the far sides of the cascade, clambering awkwardly up the uneven stairway of stones until she found herself standing by on top of the falls, albeit on the opposite side of the small stream that fed them from the gleaming pool. Squinting, she realized that whatever was glistening so bright and red in the sunlight was moving, twitching and twisting spastically.

She approached the water, keeping a careful eye on the slick ground beneath her hooves so that she didn’t find herself slipping; the water was shallow and slow enough for her to pass through it without getting caught up in the current, so she walked to the other side, brilliant turquoise water just brushing her stomach. Approaching the pool, she came to the unfortunate realization that she’d only caught a glimpse of one of the tiny, jewel-like lizards that frequented the Oasis, swimming quite pleasantly in the warm, shallow water. Seraphina didn’t feel disappointed, watching the delicate creature writhe, but she couldn’t help but feel that she was grasping at straws.