06-09-2017, 07:21 PM
Praise stumbled out of the forest that finally thinned enough for her to find her way out of it. She had a scratch on one hip, some twigs stuck in her mane, and damn it all if her nose still didn’t smart from her run-in with the mean crab before all of this began! Misadventure seemed to favor her long before she had thought to leave the boundaries of Tephra. What had seemed at first an exciting notion to explore had become a bad idea that leave a bad taste in her mouth, which might have just been nothing more than a terrible thirst.
The latter amplified by the sounds of a river both mighty and promising that poured into a sea much like the river in Tephra did, and the sight of it made her heart constrict in a small complicated measure of relief to see something familiar by association even if this particular river was not known to her. Just staring at the river caused a longing such as she had never known to rise up in her, and she realized that she stood there like a fool just staring at it, mouth hanging half open in mute shock until she shut it and regained a small measure of composure.
She started towards it, reflecting on how dry her throat was and how beautiful the river looked when she noticed him standing there, alternating between grazing and drinking. He couldn’t have been all that much older than her, not that she studied him long enough to see if he was before she rushed by him in her haste to get to the river and quench her thirst. Praise slurped long and loud of the cool water before lifting her head, the sunlight catching the droplets that clung to her chin and making them sparkle against her pale apricot skin. She looked back at him then, not in the least bit apologetic for first staring then running past him or for noisily drinking from the river.
It just never occurred to her to apologize or offer up an explanation. But all the same, she started to turn to better look at him with her pale green eyes and said, “I see we had the same idea. Mind if I join you?” It wasn’t all that like her to be so courteous but she must admit to some curious urge to munch on the same spot of grass as him, maybe because after her time alone in the forest, she was hungrier for things other than grass and water.