Her appearance seemed to change as he joked about being a god. Fluted ears perked to her in curiosity. Wondering just how she felt about gods and what had caused her such hostility. The thought was lost however as she spoke her name and Darwin turned his heavy head back to the shrieking chick, full of discomfort and upset ever more so now. Yet, when Darwin returned his gaze back to the newly named Aquila, she had disappeared. The Pegasus huffed, looking away with a roll of his eyes. “Well that’s rude.” He muttered under his breath, his beard shifting with the movement from his jaw.

Moving his heavy legs closer to Antaa, he seemed to shrug to her, looking down with a small frown crossing his maw. Unsure what to do now that the only creature that could help them had vanished. It hadn’t occurred to the stallion that Aquila might be helping him. But instead he just figured she had gotten his hopes up ever so slightly and left for them to sit there. A phoenix crying of starvation and a stallion useless in providing.

Then a movement caught Antaa’s eyes and she cried with a more excited wail. The sudden change got Darwin’s attention as his river stone gaze trailed over to where Aquila had vanished. The aquatic mare appearing again and coming onto the sands making quick work of the lobster she had caught. It was a creature Darwin had never seen before – both Aquila and the lobster – and his jaw swung slightly open with how effortlessly she seemed to prepare the meal. Antaa bounded forward, shrieking with delight to the mare as she pushed the meal to her. No matter how much Antaa wanted to dive right into the meal, she allowed her crimson gaze to sweep over the mare, her beak parted in a smile of sorts. Darwin watching, filled with delight from both the amazement that someone hadn’t left him dry and the delight passed through his connection with the phoenix realized he had let his jaw drop. Slamming them shut he dipped his head to her. “She says thank you, I’m assuming.” He casted a quick look to the phoenix as she began to dig first into the lobster tail. Her thin beak making quick work of getting the meat from the shell.

Darwin cautiously took a step toward the aquatic mare, eyes glued to her with an ever thankful smile. “Thank you Aquila.” He spoke gently until she continued, asking about the god battle. He shook his head and tilted his head to her. “Sounds interesting. No, I wasn’t here. I had left Helovia when I was just a yearling. I’ve just recently returned, I guess after all of the excitement.” His lips pursed momentarily as his gaze dropped from the mare with a curious eye. “Your land must have been beautiful.” He admitted, gaze returning to her unblinking gaze. If the winged man hadn’t found her so exotic and beautiful, he might have been frightened. Especially by her sharpened teeth. But alas, he was curious over everything. Curious to learn more about what had happened while he was gone. Curious to learn how to make friends again.

"Talk."

& they said you were the crooked kind—

that you'd never have no worth,

but you were always gold to me.