Everything felt tight, not really because he'd been standing still, but because of the salt spray. It clung to his skin and made movement more difficult, leaving him to shudder uncomfortably and nose at his own flank to try and dislodge the discomfort.
A quiet, rhythmic splashing drew his attention, and not the splashing of the waves themselves. It was far too small, and sounding more like hoofsteps.
His ears angled towards the sound before he lifted his head to look as well, blinking curiously. In retrospect, he would suppose the way he reacted to the approaching figure as a mixture of two factors.
One, Auru was very disoriented at the current moment, his mind detached and distant, like he wasn't really there. It was hard to fret when one felt as if they were floating, the whole world beneath them feeling like it almost swayed as though he were standing on the waves and not the shore. Two, the one approaching him was a child.
Sure, Auru himself was barely out of his foalhood, and wasn't a wizened adult by any means. But still, he was a fully grown stallion, was considered a man, and the boy approaching him was not so. It invoked a strange feeling in him, something he had never had much of a chance to experience before, as he had never really been around children when he himself was not a child, but it still did something strange to him.
Rather than want to run in the other direction, Auru's anxiety was still very much so present, but something else nudged his hindquarters instead. Something more base, something stronger than the need to run. Something that was ingrained in the species beyond the need to protect oneself, because ensuring the protection of offspring was more vital to the species than defense of an adult.
It bid him to approach rather than to flee.
So, curious, and quite frankly only half-way there, Auru did. He didn't go barging up to introduce himself, but he did meet the other's gaze, an open and interested look painting itself onto his lightly salted visage. His head tilted one way, then the other, before he shook out his mane, taking a few steps forward, indicating that he was more than amicable to socialization.
For once.
Which was weird.
He was still too dreamy feeling to really question it.
"Hello."
Small talk still wasn't really his specialty. Let's be honest.
@Ossian
