[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... uncert.png[/imgleft] He had always been oddly thoughtful for a desert acha. While others planned only for the moment, he tended to consider the future. What would the 'afterparty' be like, the clean-up, the lost resources. Unsurprisingly, he came across as a buzzkill because of such things. And yet, for all the possibilities he considered oh so often, his current situation hit him like a wall of sand.

And so In Dead Cold was left contemplating at the side of the marsh, for once very unsure of the possibilities ahead. He knew for a fact that he was going to be a father, and yet that did nothing to foster any concrete ruminations. There were just too many factors to sift through.

@Ruriska

[imgleft]https://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/imag ... ncert3.png[/imgleft]


Beside him, where there had been empty space moments before, a mare now stood.

"You're the one," she said; her voice had an odd buzz to it and the ghostly form of a gold and black wasp lingered at her side.

Swarm stared at him unblinking, waiting, antenna twitching.

@Gl!tch~

He didn't take surprise well. In Dead Cold tended to think he was pretty unflappable, so something appearing as if out of nowhere made him jump and stumble a bit.

"Wh-what..."

The buck had to look over the mare now in his company. Not like anything he had ever seen. He had no idea how to handle such a visage.

"I'm...? What?"

@Ruriska

"The one," she repeated, affirming it with a nod, pleased with her own discovery.

This was her first. It was a strange sensation to be standing next to him, like a pleasant warmth in her chest.

"Do you want to be a father?"

Not that he had a choice but she was curious anyway.

@Gl!tch~

"I..." He paused. Considered. Closed his eyes. Shook his head with a little bit of frustration before solidifying the expression with a hoof stomp. He exhaled with that. "What I want doesn't matter. Or if it did, I never thought about it. And now, it's..."

Gone. Gone like a moth flying out of reach.

@Ruriska