It does not pass her notice how quickly they settle into a comfortable companionship, each seemingly content to pass the night, or at least a part of it, in the company of a stranger. Her blue-black gaze rests easily on him as he speaks, and she takes her time, listening, enjoying the slow, warm movement of the water and the distant frog-songs.

"Will, I think," she muses, uncharacteristically. "My little brother gave me the name when we were young, and it stuck."

He continues with the conversation, and she is content to accept the distraction his questions provide her.  She enjoyed the give and take of a first meeting, she liked the possibilities, and she would far rather spend the night with his thoughts than hers.

"This is not my first time in Tephra, but I doubt you have seen me before." Most likely, he wouldn't recognize her even if he had seen the balding, malnourished filly she had been last she was in Tephra. And if he had, it wasn't an image she was eager to call to mind for either of them.  So she doesn't elaborate, but before the silence has time to settle, her freckled lips finally pull into something close to a smile.

"So," she begins, sinking a little deeper and letting the water swirl over her neck and shoulders as her inky-black mane lifts to float around her.

"You must be a proud Tephra Man then, a staunch defender of the Volcano." Inwardly she half cringes, half laughs, aware but not too concerned that the starlight and lack of sleep are loosening her tongue.

"Do you serve her with your strength or words?"

 

Tensing ever so slightly, Will watches a question flicker across his handsome face; her vague response seems to hardly satisfy him. But he is generous and swallows it down, and she is grateful. The night is long and the subject may come up again, but it is far too early to speak of death when she had only just shaken it.

Of course, his statement that his name is no good for nicknames comes as a challenge, and her lips begin to move as she murmurs a handful of variations under her breath.

"Aie... Dan... Den." On the last, she smiles. "Den isn't so bad," she suggests. "A den is cozy and comfortable... but it's also dark, and can be dangerous for those who shouldn't cross it" It seemed a fitting name, and whether he agrees or not she tucks it away for future use.

His honesty on the next topic causes a chuckle to rumble across her body. Her shoulders, wet and black, lifting and falling ever so slightly, and her antlered skull does a little dip.

"Diplomacy is overrated anyway." She makes her bold statement as if she had a real knowledge of the subject - a tell that she too had grown up a bit spoiled and a bit royal. "By the time you get back home the world's been flipped upside down and your words are wind. I think, in most cases, it's better to expend energy on recruiting and greeting. Keep the kingdom healthy and let the others fight among themselves."

That he never asked for her opinion never crosses her mind, as one of a mess of siblings she had no fear of confrontation. If he counters or agrees, she would be equally happy. But another piece of information has captured her attention, causing her thoughts to transition. 

"So you are as young as you look then? You never know with all these immortals.. what are you, four? Five?" Will's appraising gaze makes its way deliberately across the visible parts of the stallion's body. 

"Tell me what it is that's kept you anchored here for all those years..." Her voice loses its know-it-all edge with this, replaced by genuine curiosity. She wonders too, with a hint of shame that never makes it to her face, if he had a mate, a family, if Tephra alone was enough to keep him here.

If it would be enough for her in the coming years. 

 

"I'm not a poet," she laughs. "Although I think the starlight lead me into thinking maybe I could be."

He continues, the conversation moving on and she is enjoying learning more about him. She understands his lack of true attachment to Tephra, she had never felt the kind of connection to any of her homes that her mothers' had felt for Hyaline. But she had always wanted to. She had wanted to feel it for Tephra. His response is a deep enough answer for her, all correctly wrapped up with the fact that she, truly, had already known.

"...You gotta find your own reason, you know?"

The words hang between them fr a breath as she realizes this, and then she gives a deep sigh which turns in to a sort of laugh at the end.

"Well, I'm a fighter." She says, shifting the topic. That the majority of her battles had taken place on another plane she didn't believe was relevant information. "So if you ever feel like changing that, if you want to be a tiny bit useful, find me and we'll find out if you have any fight in you." 

"It would be fun," pushing her limits and feeling the blood rush of a challenge had always been the epitome of fun for her, "and if I'm a little out of shape I would rather find that out with you than if Tephra needs some help."