ORIGIN

Aethereal tilted her head. "Leo? I haven't heard of that place. Do you know what it's like?" Now that she thought about it, she didn't break from her usual path much either. The world was probably a lot bigger than those rooms she frequented. "Pretty much the same places as you. I need to visit Draco, that way, regularly." Her furred tail flicked eastward. "It's not a nice place, though. And I've been to Orion once, to talk to someone, but never visited again."

Would it be a good thing to explore more? she wondered. She never really counted the days between each visit to Draco, but it was fairly long. She'd have time to visit other places and stay a while before returning. Would I have the presence of mind to enjoy the visit, though?

Either way, there wasn't really any [i]harm that could come from a change in surroundings. A break in the monotony of daily life could be a good diversion from chaos. "I think I'm going to visit some other rooms too, soon. It sounds fun. We could even explore together?"

Well, that made sense, actually. Who knew what dangers new places might hold, especially with an apparent war going on? "I'm glad," she agreed, "it does feel safer to explore with a friend."

"I'll die if I don't," Aethereal said simply, in response to the question about Draco. "But it feels awful. ... Creepy. It is warm, and humid, and feels like walking on bloodied deer flesh." Immediately after the words left her mouth, it constricted in a wince. Where did that comparison come from?! It was one of the awfuller things she'd said.

"It seems to... live, in a way. Constantly groaning and moving. There are lots more pleasant places to be."

It was hard not to continue to cringe at her own questionable similes. What had she been thinking, talking like that in front of a friend as new as this one? Should I apologize? Cygnus was moving on from the conversation topic--maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to leave it behind forever--but ugh, if she didn't apologize would it be weird? Maybe Cygnus would be so disturbed he'd run away as soon as the conversation was done and never talk to her again.

The sound of an agitated-seeming snort did nothing to ease Aethereal's worries. Leo? Yeah, Leo was good and fine to talk about, but wow, Aethereal, you really dug yourself into a hole with that Draco comparison, didn't you? Was it too late now--? No, it hadn't been that long, right? She could still just say one little apology, right???

"I'm, uh--" Words felt difficult. Crap, was that the plague coming back again? Of ALL the things Aethereal did NOT need--"sorry about that. Weird simile thing. I don't know why I said that." There! She'd said it! Gotten the apology out of her mouth! Talking was just HARD sometimes with chaos whispering violent things into your mind and it was much easier just to live mindlessly, hunting mountain deer or fishing in the Drowned Forest. That wasn't fun, though, she reminded herself. She didn't want to go back to that--at least, not right now.

So, Leo. How's that instead? "And sure," she agreed, eager to move on from the topic of a rather more unfortunate cave. "Leo. Sounds good. Uh- where is it? And when should we go?"

'Well, um, I'm a deer, so..." Oh. OH. Well that was just GREAT, then. The BEST POSSIBLE SITUATION, wasn't it. Might as well call her the Master of Putting Feet Inside Mouths. Heeeuuuughhhhorrrrrrgggggg. Moving on, moving on, moving on EXTREMELY QUICKLY NOW, THANK YOU.

"Gotcha," Aethereal said, then immediately winced again at the palpably false cheeriness. "Um--is it really nighttime?" she wondered. Her wings opened slightly, feeling the air around her. Not really cold, but then Pegasus was always warmer than Ursa, day or night. "All right. I don't mind resting, either." Now was really the best opportunity to get some real sleep, anyway.

Folding her wings back over herself, Aethereal rested her neck around her front feet. "Wake me up when you're ready to go?" Wait, what if Cygnus was a napper, and woke her up in only an hour or so? An absolute tragedy--but Aethereal'd already had enough of backtracking and saying stupid things today. Hopefully he sleeps for a long time, she thought.

Apparently he did, which was a relief. Given the nature of her self-destructive magic, it was more than likely that Aethereal would be the first to wake up--but hell, she'd probably just flop over and go right back to sleep anyways. At least try to.

Without eyes to close, Aethereal simply rested her head on the ground, shifting into a more comfortable position. Her breathing slowed, and within minutes, she fell into the most peaceful sleep she'd had in exactly two weeks.