Gale follows her and it’s surprising how much that pleases Maze. Truthfully, she’s not sure what she would’ve done if he hadn’t. Probably promptly attacked him, bring that ever-delayed rematch to light just for the insult of it all.
It’s not needed, though, and he partially answers the first question as she moves into the ocean. She wants to know about the curse - she is powerfully interested in hearing about a family curse that involves shapeshifting - but she’s temporarily sidetracked by the idea that Gale had been worried about scaring her off. Or had that been a joke? It’s difficult to tell, but if it wasn’t - here she was, being an idiot worried about making him dig up some horrible family memories.
She listens as he explains how he came to live here - finding it curious all the different ways homes are found. “It’s not so bad now.” She comments with a small grin - though she does find herself wondering what it looks like under the sunshine.
And then he asks her about her shifting, her smile brightens - it’s a subject she’s very fond of. She scrubs at some of the stubborn patches of blood on her arm as she answers and there’s a note of fondness in her voice when she speaks of shifting - like she’s talking about a dear friend. “Yup, all my life. It’s common in my family, but well - without a curse or anything on it.” She makes an apologetic grimace as she realizes belatedly this may not be the sort of thing she should tease him about. “A snow leopard was the first - that’s my mom’s favourite shape. Then I just started trying everything I could see. It was tough at the beginning but now -”
Mazikeen trails off, trying to find the right words to describe how much this part of her life means to her. When she can’t, she buys herself a few more seconds when she dunks her head under the dark water for a quick second. As she rises up, she shifts again - back into a mare (with feline eyes) and the only marks on her pristine white coat are the shallow slashes she had earned in her battle along her legs and shoulders. They sting but her eyes find Gale’s face again and no pain diminishes the grin that shines in her orange eyes. “It’s gotten much easier. It might sound dumb, but don’t know what I’d be without this ability.”
@[Gale]