They walk on, deeper into the heart of the island where the light turned green and filtered through lush foliage. Aquaria listened as Oceane took control of the conversion, offering appropriate comments and smiling when the pegasus spoke of her family's growth.
Cormorant too had traveled to the frigid north, and seemed to have found contentment there. He didn't visit as often as she would like, but often enough to appreciate the robust stallion her son had matured into. She only hoped he was finding happiness wherever he was now.
Racous parrots, noisy as ever, barely registered on the nereid's awareness anymore. They were the eternal soundtrack to the island, along with steady beating waves and rustling palm fronds. It made her smile then to realize that her friend was so intrigued by the jewel tone birds.
They lived complicated lives up above. Raised chicks, found love, found rivals, fought and cared for one another like any horses. Surely they felt loss as well? When a beloved mate fell ill, or a sweet hatchling joined the food chain as a serpent's meal, or simply stumbled from the safety of the nest too soon.
For a moment, both mares were transfixed by the avian lives playing out above them. She couldn't understand them in the way that Oceane could, but a sort of kinship touched her for a moment, a link she'd never felt began herself and the parrots. The tenuous connection was pushed aside as the lull broke, golden eyed Oceane's kind voice a balm on her.
She brought her own gaze back level with the earth, all false brightness erased. "I'm tired, is all," she murmured, head shaking. Tired in a bone deep way, tired like she could never sleep long enough to ease. "Never seem to run out of things to overthink." She eased some of the tension from her shoulders, shocked as always at how tight muscles could get when you weren't paying attention.
Tail swishing lightly, she nodded back to the trail they'd been traveling on. "We'll be to the falls soon. We'd be able to hear it without the birds." She said without regret. Sometimes she enjoyed that the waterfall seemed to come out of nowhere, cloaked in greenery and bird calls. It made it seem more secretive than it was.
@[Oceane]