well someday soon when the spring brings the sun
i'll sleep, i'll finally
feel better when the winter's gone

The sea waits in front of them, whispering thin threats and low cries out as the distance extends into the horizon, drawing out far and wide, cloaking all of the islands living atop it’s skin. Islands that Sikeax needed to reach to find (hopefully)herbs that could be used well in the Dragon’s Throat.
“Hurry up. Monster slow. Monster need to go.”
His impatience lingers overhead like a swollen storm cloud, shifting his light, spotted stomach across the orange, damp sands, groaning as his black eyes watch the two mares bicker.
"Fly across. I’ll be right below you the entire time. "
She wonders if Amara’s wings will hold out on her, if she’ll be able to make the flight across without issues. The swim feels endless for her, but that’s how the ocean has always felt when she ventures too far out, leaving the safety the shallows to venture out into the depths. While she has no idea what lies in the black, swirling mass that deepens beneath her small, insignificant body as she goes further out, it strikes a fear into her that makes her body scream.
There was maybe once, when Hobgoblin was very young, that she had watched him dive so far away from her to that place. Nothing but darkness, fear, facing the one place she’ll never go to with a sort of courage she’ll never hold.
Now, he stays near the surface with her, constantly climbing to breach the waves and gasp for more breaths of air that she doesn’t need in this world. His songs fill her ears and take the vast emptiness away as he sings, almost beautiful, looking for something she doesn’t understand.
Low calls are coming from him as she watches, waiting for Amara to make the leap.
“The isles might be the only place with herbs as of right now, and if there is some over there, I need someone to fly them back.”
“Enough wait. Go now.”
Blue eyes follow his body as it slips into the water, bracing himself against the cold waves as the shallows rub against his stomach.
“We’ll get to spend time together. Alone. Without..” Her voices fades and carries off, standing, refusing to blink as the ocean before them repeats the same movements. It’s a clear, moderately cool day, particularly dry, with clear skies that offer no daunting clouds in the distance.
All of this to avoid saying that one thought that might go through both of their heads when she leaves it unspoken, rising tension into the air.
“...Anyone to bother us.”
Does that sound invertly sexual?
“You have new Zhu with Monster??”
Maybe in the future. We asked for a child long ago.
“Other Zhu dead?”
Never happened.”
His singing begins now, low and long.
“Head east and slightly north. I don’t know how long it’ll take you to fly, but wait on the island with the black mountain on it, on the beach. I’ll meet you there.”
In her chest is a stitch of pain, stepping away from the winged mare’s side to enter the sea at last, holding her breath as her head goes underwater completely, forced by course of habit. Hobgoblin greets her in the depths with loose calls, repeatedly crying out to her between his songs when he cannot see her, assuring one another that in a world that almost holds no boundaries that they do not lose one another.

OOC: permission to PP Amara from dark.

"Talk."