He had indeed won.
He had most certainly caught the most fireflies.
He rather wished he hadn't, right about now. He didn't know what she would have asked of him, but he had no idea what to ask of her in turn as it was anyway, and he had a feeling that whatever she had wanted would have been less miserable than he currently was right now. There was just something about the crushing feeling of defeat that left his estranged. Sure, he had won the competition, but he had lost when it came to ridding himself of the bugs, and the resignation to his fate weighed upon him heavily and disheartened him.
Wait-where was she going?
Close his eyes-?
He should probably close his eyes, he got the feeling he wouldn't like having them open for whatever she was about to do.
The unseen gust of wind startled him, before he realized from the sounds that she must be buffeting him with her wings, nothing to be afraid of, but startling all the same when he had not seen it coming, literally. But as the wind died off, he hesitantly cracked his eyes open to look at his flanks, seeing that most of the bugs had been banished and were now drifting harmlessly around him. He still had a few stragglers, but they were very few.
He stubbornly force one off with his telekinesis and threw it as hard as he could into the distance, the little insect finally righting itself a ways away and finally buzzing off to leave him be. He huffed. Finally.
"That was only temporary. I remember coming across a small stream a little ways east; follow me, quickly!”
For once, there was no hesitation on his part to follow after another, the scrawny man setting into a quick gallop after the taller woman, not entirely sure where she was headed. His specialty were the swamplands. He knew a little of the rest of the Court territories, but he was beginning to learn the layout of the swamp better than he knew his own hooves. That was one reassurance, if ever there was any trouble, any foes would be hard pressed to keep up with him in the murky land. Auru knew what seemingly stable patches of land actually were not so, and was rapidly and painfully learning where all the rocks were hidden under the water and how to avoid them, and what areas of water looked too deep to traverse but actually had hidden pathways under the surface.
He knew the swamps well.
Everywhere else?
Eh... he could point you in a general direction of where to go but that was about it.
So he was thankful that Cyrene's knowledge was greater than his own when the stream she spoke of turned out to not only be real, but that she had led them to it faithfully. He hadn't been much for water in his youth, not many were, but living in the swampland had rapidly cured him of any aversion, and he wasted no time in shuffling as deep as he could into the water and laying himself down, angling himself so that the waters might run over his flanks and wash the sticky juices off.
Ah... blessed relief. Even if the rocks of the stream bed were a little harsh on his bony hips, he wasn't going to be too bruised at the end of this venture.
"Have you decided on a prize?”
His ears perked up and he turned to look at her back over his shoulder, watching the last of the fireflies drift off of his shoulder to escape the water as he did so, surprised at how easily he had already grown distracted from her presence. He was usually hyper aware of any company that he might have.
...It was probably the fact that he had been a bit preoccupied.
Which, funnily enough, was the exact answer he had to her question.
He felt his cheeks warm a little under the brown hair coat, and he looked down at where his fore legs lay under the water, hooves rubbing at each other a little, hidden underneath the surface.
"A-Ah, right... I-I, um... no, no I was a little um... p-preoccupied at the time..."
His voice trailed off to nothingness as he spoke, suddenly embarrassed. The whole point of the competition had been to win a prize, and here he was, the technical winner but already shamed as it was by winning through the most embarrassing tactic he could think of, and now he didn't even have thoughts for a prize. His hooves rubbed against each other, the man suddenly wanting to dunk his warmed face into the water despite the fact that there was no fruit juice to be found there.
@Cyrene
OOC: I couldn't think of anything rip, this thread got very wild and I am glad it did, need some light heartedness with all the drama going on, phew. 'S gettin' intense.
