The traveller sank further into the cool aqua, his bronze coat turning a whole spectrum of shades darker as it became saturated and cleansed. Casting his sight over the sea of green around him, he noticed he was quite alone. Birds flicked and flittered between their houses in the canopies, the occasional mother sparrow dancing around the rock pools to catch a drop of water before continuing the hunt for a winters den. "Good day" Tilney might say to each creature whistling by. This was a brute who really did not mind the fact that they never replied, he understood that they could not speak his language and he could not speak theirs; He would greet them the only way he knew how.

Verdant eyes then cast downwards at the water. Staring back at him was his own big nose and ivory snip. His nose looked so big he could hardly see his eyes, and so he began to tilt and turn his head to find a more flattering angle, but he couldn't seem to find one. I do have a rather big nose he thought, smirking ever so slightly before his gaze once again traced back up to the meadow. This time the green sea carried a passenger; a splash on the horizon in the shape of a pegasus.
Wow. Tilney was a stallion who envied very little. He was ever thankful for his life and everything in it, but one thing that pulled at those few strings of jealousy in his chest were the pegasi. Such an unearthly, supreme, heavenly race. Tilney would give so much just to fly once. 

Dreams and wonder filled his head as that smudge came closer, splashes of gold were now in view. Tilney wondered exactly what the trees looked like from above. And the rivers! oh, the rivers. He bet they looked like veins, supplying the very fruit of life to each seed and creature on its travels to the sea. How nice it must be to have wings! Just a few beats and you're somewhere else. 
Now Tilney had expected this awe-inspiring creature to have changed its course by now. Going through this part of the meadow would add a bit of time to ones journey, but closer and closer it came. It was then he noticed that perhaps this very spot was the creatures destination; it was after all possibly the best swimming spot in central helovia.

The winged one had approached; A lad of similar height but his stance much more athletic then his own thick, muscular form. Painted was he, a palette of ivory and gold with his own striking viridescent shade in his eyes. Opening his mouth to greet the stranger, Tilneys voice was interrupted at the sight of a small bear-like creature rushing from the painteds wing and into the water not far from Tilney. 
'Ilaria!'
Ever so slightly Frightened of the patterned animal, but curiosity took over as he watched it paddle right around him to a close by bank. By then a wide grin had fallen on the bronze bucks countenance, which traced back through the water to the other male. Apologies were made, but Tilney could hardly understand for what; this small bear was beautiful! 
"Oh, No! It's quite alright my friend. I have never seen these bears before! How beautiful she is" was the bronzes response, eyes easily finding their way back to the unfamiliar but enchanting creature. "Hello there, beautiful bear" Tilney whispered to her. He could only assume she was one of those companions he had seen from time to time. Like Arah's Wynter! Oh, Arah. He didn't go a day without thinking about her fifty- no, fifty-thousand times. 

'May we join you?'
"Of course!" Tilney chanted, then quickly glanced to either side of him to see where he could step to make room for who he already considered a fabulous new friend. "My name is Tilney, I am a nurse of the World Edge" was his over-excited bellow as he waded to a nearby rock, closer to the streams feeding source; a small but grand waterfall. "From where do you hail? and may I ask your names?" His ashen nares tossed between the painted and the patterned, smiling widely towards them.