[PRP] Better to Hear You With [Speak Not x Sleeping Terror]

[Muffinsbaby]

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... muffin.gif[/imgleft]Speak Not wandered, as she usually did, through the swamp as the first rays of morning began to trickle through the trees and reveal the world once more. Her hooves fell softly against the unseasonable snow that coated everything and her hair erased the tracks as she swished her tail behind her. The crisp air awakened her lungs and she took a deep breath of it. Her ears twitched as she listened to the world around her - birds protesting the cold and calling to dear ones, water creatures submerging quickly, the rustle of smaller creatures fleeing from her as she advanced. She relished these peaceful walks though she always felt a pang of loneliness and today was no different.

Her path became blocked by the alluring arch of a gap in some brush. She knew better than to walk under snow-laden leaves so she took the time to grasp a branch in her teeth and shake the snow loose.

[Mima]

[imgright]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgright]Sleeping Terror was not usually an early riser, but she had been anxious since her trip to the mountains. She hadn't been thinking of them as home when she'd started the journey, and yet... She still felt lost when she was sent back to this "home." Perhaps not because she missed them, but because the ending felt so... strange. Abrupt. There was no journey back, just a flash and a dream. No more worn-down, bleeding hooves and painful joints, just the feeling of wading through the (now chilly) swamp once more.

It was something strange, a longing for something that didn't exist. Like she craved a place that existed only in her dreams, a place she belonged as opposed to the place she was.

She didn't like to think this deeply about such things, but found it impossible not to, on the long journey to yet another "home."

The sound of leaves shaking set her on edge as she was suddenly snapped back to reality. It was a large thing nearby, one that wasn't trying to conceal itself. The pit of her stomach said "another bear" though the tiny amount of logic she still had in her well-battered head said "there aren't really bears in the swamp, stupid. It's just an eaglehound or a kin or something." That certainly seemed like the most likely answer, yet... didn't quite satisfy her.

So, though she was not a master of stealth herself, she plodded towards the offending noise with her head lowered and ready to charge if it seemed necessary. It was so much harder for her to switch herself out of "fight everything" mode than it was to put herself in it- and the feeling of that stung, just a little.

[Muffinsbaby]

Once she was satisfied the foliage was clear she stopped and stepped into the fresh mounds in order to continue on her way. She shivered as it chilled her hooves and she let out a huff of breath.

She had not felt the pull to travel from the swamp, though she knew there had been one. She had not seen the horrors or felt the effects of the obelisk found in the mountains. The only strange thing that happened to her was this darn snow in the middle of the hot season.

Coming through to the other side she found herself confronted by another. She hadn't expected to see someone, but she couldn't say she was too surprised as the swamp had many who called it home. She was surprised, however, that this particular life was in a stance suggesting they were ready to attack. Speak Not couldn't help but feel slightly amused that she was considered a threat.

She stood still and watched the totoma carefully. She slowly tilted her head to the side and made sure to animatedly furrow her brow in what she hoped looked like confusion, then gave a slow blink. She was curious to the thoughts of the totoma at this time and more than wary of meeting the armor plating and horns.

[Mima]

The offending creature was an elegant-looking kimeti, a doe she had not met at the excursion to the Obelisk. Well, of course. If they were going from the same place to the same place, she'd have probably noticed her a lot sooner. Sleeping Terror's stance relaxed a little, as she lifted her head a bit and wore an expression of cautious optimism instead of outright anxious rage. There was still some expectation in the back of her mind that the stranger would take the first opportunity she got to attack.

Most of the bloodlust she'd felt up in the mountains had been sated by the completion of the Obelisk, but... There was still just a little bit lingering deep in the marrow of her bones. Perhaps with the amount of shards she'd collected and infected animals she had fought, it had warped her just a bit. Or maybe she'd always been like that. She didn't remember. Things were fuzzy, dreamlike, and the trip through the plane of unreality with her nightmare had not helped.

She stood her ground as the silent doe tilted her head, perhaps unintentionally turning this into an overblown staring contest in doing so. After what was surely long enough for both of them to feel awkward, she snorted, shifting her weight on her hooves. This... wouldn't be going anywhere if she didn't put some effort into it, would it? Take a breath and think, Sleeping Terror.

At long last, she eventually called out, "...Greetings." It was curt, and perhaps a bit forced, but she was trying.

(Not a social butterfly, this one.)