As they walked along, Malik sees how eagerly Paj Sia takes in the world around them. Everything seems to please her. The Brilliant Pampas is a beautiful land, but Malik rarely gives it much thought. If he did, he tended to compare it to Hyaline, which only made him miss his former homeland all the more.
But the spotted mare sees the place with fresh eyes, her enthusiasm undimmed by memories of a different world. He finds himself smiling back, nodding his head in acknowledgement of her thanks. At the compliment he glances down shyly, but a quietly pleased smile remains when he looks back up.
She’ll keep an eye out for Sickle, she says, and now it’s his turn to be grateful. “Thank you. That means more to me than you know.”
Then she’s moving toward the water, sparing him the trouble of hiding the emotions that the statement brings up, and allowing him time to reform his smile.
‘Do you want to join me?’ she asks, and Malik flicks his ears forward curiously. He’s already had one swim today, but the idea of a second one is not unappealing. Nodding, he moves forward, and wades into the cool water.
@ Paj Sia
Smiling even more, she splashed some water under her before she went along and splashed some onto him. Like a water fight, she dunk her nose down a bit and used it to splash water back onto him. "Hahaha!" She laughs, walking to give them some distance if he tried to splash some onto her.
"Water fight!" She giggles, her mane and fur all soaked from the water, but she was well aware and keep her eyes on him. She was very excited to play with him.
"Have you ever played before?" She then asked.
@  Malik
The spotted mare doesn’t hesitate, splashing into the water. Malik stops in the shallows, and would have been content to stay there had Paj Mia not drawn him into water. The water wasn’t especially cold, but it was unexpected, and the black stallion blinks in surprise while she moves out of range of potential retribution.
‘Have you ever played before?’ she asks. It is clear from her lighthearted tone and chortled merriment that she’d meant the splashing in jest. “Not in a long time,” he answers. From startled surprise, his expression has once more become a smile, though it does not quite reach his mismatched eyes.
He cannot even remember the last time he had played for the fun of it. Perhaps with his youngest sisters, but even in their childhood he had been prone to fits of quiet brooding and isolation.
Malik wants to try though, so he smiles, and lowers his head to toss a bit of water in Paj Mia’s direction.
She was even happier to see that he joined along which the water had splashed onto her. She splashed a few little bits of water at him again, but then her ears perked up with another fun thing in mind as she went over close to him again.
Making her go over and booping her nose to his neck as she giggles. "Your it!" She giggles, trotting to the shallow water to have fun while running to not get booped too. "Bet you can't catch me!"
She giggles along the way, trying to not get caught so soon now. What would be the fun in that?
@ Malik
This time when she lowers her head to the water to splash him, Malik is ready. He steps to the left, feeling the cool droplets on his right shoulder and shivering slightly. The bed of the stream below his hooves is armored in rocks, and for a moment he almost loses his balance. A few stumbling steps help him regain it, and in that time the spotted mare has come much closer.
The pressure on his neck is unexpected, and though he turns his head quickly to meet Paj Mia’s gaze, he doesn’t flinch away. This is part of the game; that is clear from the giddiness behind her light brown eyes. Malik trots after her, and after only a few steps he reverts to the type of chasing game that he’s most familiar with.
Though Malik’s shifting has always been more limited than his family’s, the dark stallion has no difficulty at all becoming a sleek feathered kingfisher. With a few quick flaps of his wings, he’s overtaken Paj Mia. He swoops in front of her, displaying impressive aerobatic skills, then moves closer and brushes a feathered wing against her in flight. The chittering sound of the kingfisher is nothing like Malik’s voice, but it is unmistakable as anything but laughter as he darts away again. He glides over the water downstream, then perches on an overhanging branch that is just out of reach to wait for her to catch up.
She was very much shocked and surprised and saw his wings come and tag her. Knowing fully well that she was caught and tagged. "Hey!!! Hmph! Lucky!" She was easily caught as she pouts but runs to catch up to him. "Come down!" She says, as if to try and climb the tree but failed as she slips. After all, she only has hooves for grip. That will not help her at all. What can she do in this situation?
"Malik!? Please!!!" She gave him very cute eyes as she tried to convince him to come down, pushing her bits of mane away as to get him to come done from the branch he was on. "I forgot to set the rules!" She neighs, looking up at him and still giving him the eyes of innocence to convince. "I can't reach you! Please go easy on me!"
@ Malik
Malik bobs his kingfisher’s head quickly, the movement serving both to express his laughter as Paj Mia splashes toward him in the water as well as to keep him balanced on the swaying twig on which he perches. The beak he points at the spotted mare is as dark as the rest of his feathers, their patterning a miniature replica of the faint markings of his equine shape. His eyes are the same as they’d been as well, a pair of mismatched beads: one electric blue and the other brilliant orange.
He watches as she plays at trying to climb the tree in which he perches, and as she does he flutters down a branch. Closer - but still not near enough to touch, and he chitters out a pleased kingfisher chuckle. It feels nice to win, but the weight of the game in his favor as well as the endearing way Paj Sia blinks up at him soon has the black bird landing in the water as a black horse once more.
“I’ll stay a horse,” he says, amusement coloring his voice and turning his usually dour expression into a smile. “And even give you a head start.” Malik uses his head to gesture in a ‘thataways’ direction. Like he had told Paj Mia, it has been a long time since he played, but he still remembers some of the rules. “But not too big of a head start.”
@Paj Sia
"Aww... why am I so short?"
She sadly says, seeing how she still could not reach him at all. He went down closer to her, but still unable to reach him as she was just an ordinary horse with no wings, on horns, nothing really but being an ordinary creature. She watches as he lands down and stays on the ground level with her.
"Hm, I feel so weak."
She comments on herself. Listening to him, she jolts as she knew this was her only chance.
"Don't go back on your words then!"
She starts bolting it, running ahead in the direction he allowed. Running along the fields first, she was trying to look behind her and running along to not get caught. She would try and make sharp turns and such to not get caught.
@ Malik
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