It occurred to the roan mare that this was an environment she'd not yet explored. As she trudged the coastline, the grass was choked by ivory sands and the sound of water rushed into her ears. It was unexpected, to say the least, and she wondered if she hadn't made a terrible mistake. The earth beneath her hooves shifted and roiled like it was alive, and every step sent a little chill of discomfort up her spine. She was a daughter of the forest, protector of the great tree and walker of firm grounds. Even the birds here sounded different, with new caws and squawks the likes of which she'd never heard.

Cheska had spent her morning ambling down the coast, sightseeing and looking for some company. The latter objective she had thus far failed miserably, and so she was left with only the sound of gulls and a song for companionship. She sang her song cheerfully as she scooped up sand with her broad nose and dragged it into nonsensical patterns and mounds near her feet. She crooned it to herself as she chased the outgoing tide and ran from the incoming. She forgot the words to the last verse and hummed it to herself as she lay in the shade of a rocky outcropping, trying to shake sand out of her twisted black mane.

She'd found a strange little creature with a smooth, speckled shell and they were nipping at each other with claw and teeth when she heard it. The sound of a squeal drew her attention away from the sharp thing.

I'm being eaten!

Oh, no you're not, she thought resolutely, Ain't nobody gettin eaten on my watch. In an instant, she was up and kicking off her back legs into a dead gallop. Sand sprayed out behind her and up into her feathers. She pounded down the beach, a massive thing moving too quickly to look in any way elegant. That sarcastic part of her brain had an instantaneous reaction. What are you going to do, pony? You've got no wings, no horn, and no magic. Are you going to kill whatever's eating that kid with your sparkling personality? She shook the thought from her mind. Maybe she'd give it something a little bigger to shove in its-

It took a few long moments, but she finally arrived at the scene of the "crime" to find a young pegasus descending into a soft, wet dune. Her first instinct was to race forward to catch the flailing filly, fling herself into the landing spot to form a soft Cheska-cushion. But the image of a bunch of lanky legs colliding with her face (a face she was rather fond of, given that it was the only one she had) gave her just enough hesitation to see the young one land hard.

She instantly felt a sting of responsibility.

She trotted gently forward toward where the filly was getting back to her feet. Minding her tone and the filly's personal space, she approached slowly. Too many things around these parts could kill her, and she was hardly looking for a fight. "You hurt?" she asked gently. She'd learned with Kyrie that a mother's fretting was a terrible kind of magic that only made the little scrapes and burns of childhood sting all the worse. So rather than panic, she smiled a little smile only for her solitary companion. "Don't get me wrong, you've got some impressive aeronautics there, but maybe we oughtta wash that out, hmm?" She gestured toward the water, waiting for the filly to accept or breathe fire and roast her face off. Whatever came first.


count] 610
tags] @[Auriel]
ooc]Hope you don't mind.