Cera.
God forsaken Cera.
Whatever had occurs after she watched him soar over head was a blur. Maybe she cried, screamed, gave up on whatever she'd meant to do, and embarrassed herself in front of family members. There was a chance that she'd been brave as originally done, that she fought valiantly, but after her winged friend came in like her guardian angel, there was absolutely no going back.
Another blank slate in her mind, another time to question all of her actions.
Depression didn't follow this time, the small glass koi fish before her was beautiful, swallowing all of her sorrow. The tri-shaded glass had become the center of her attention she received it. A small hole allowed for it to be awkwardly placed on her horn and hauled about, but lacking a chain, it was sure to break. It left her to drag it away to her own special place, away from the busy epicenter of the sand covered landscape.
Salt tainted every breath, burning her nostrils when larger wifts came in harder. Moonlight shone bright overhead to offer guidance in all of her tasks. The oak was pushed away from the rest, placed randomly but that seemed no issue. She'd seen sparks of grass in the desert, and withered trees. This one had seemed no different; the branches would barely hold leaves in the height of Birdsong. Her safety in it was for the song of birds who sang in the night, and the various holes that had been woven into the exposed roots and trunk. Any herbs she'd gathered for herself had been shoved in them.
Memories of spending time with Africa and Silas here during a simpler time embedded itself here. It'd become her place to hide, to wade in the salt water and to wish on random stars. Tonight, it was a place to hide all, wishing on all of the stars that the glow of her horn would go out for some time so that hiding in the night would be easier.
Spread down to the ground with minor cuts, blood washed away with the burn of water, her vision locked on her only company. A quiet bird had joined her, not releasing a single note from it's beak. Sorrow poured into her once more, but never fell down to the same level as once. She'd been the cause of injury to her friend, blank minded because she must of blacked out, and chances are, an embarrassment to all of her herdmates.

@[Cera]

The night took it all away, the tears she might of shed when she'd originally escaped the eyes of herd mates, her troubles, the blood that had finally end it's fall from her cuts. Silence didn't seem so lonely as sleep began to make a slow appearance, beckoning her with a ghostly hand into the darkness so all the past horrors of the previous day could be forgotten for however long she was under.
It's knocked, snatched, ripped from her frail, weak fingers at the sound of her name, all too familiar and sickening when the vocal cords that generate it are from the certain someone who has brought her this far away. Her only companion, the small bird, is startled by the arrival and leaves her with the winged stallion who's followed her out this far. With no place to run, she can only frown in pity for his current state, and feel the full extent of seeing a person that she cares so much forgo to a dark place once more.
"C-Cera?" His name has a bad taste when it trembles on her lips and doesn't want to go. She almost has to slap it off of her face to get it out.
For her chosen resting place does nothing. He is out there while she finds herself drowning in a pool of regrets and worry, possibly her own crying pains that is just as wide as the ocean surrounding their home.
Without given consent, her whole body works to instinct and forces her to the gravestone shaded hooves where her legs shake momentarily, threatening to break beneath the weight of her heart. Everything moves straight to him, them(now noticing Ilaria on his shoulder), face showing her emotions. The pair of cream coloured dishes mounted to her head droop to the side of her skull by the time a nicker much like a whimper is offered towards him.
All of her senses lock to him, but her eyes do nothing other than lock to those green eyes, unwilling to see the wounds he placed upon himself for her. Her life is forever loyal to his after he came to save her when the world proved to her that she wasn't ready for such a situation.
"C-Cera...? Is that you?" Every part of rational mind screams that it is him, but the rude tricks played on her so many times in the past has made her weary of what her eyes tell her. "Are you okay?" Stupidity slaps her hard because it's the obvious answer that he isn't. She wants so desperately to wake up from some bad dream and to search him out, to see that he's just as well as the day they met, but everything is all too real, and lying to herself now would be the end of her.

Everything about him makes her feel worse, swallowing her sorrow when his earthly eyes meet her sky blue hues, the small smile growing on his facial features enough to make weak happiness cloud her eyes. A low nicker brushes her lips directed towards Ilaria, a repeat of the same kind of her mother had given her as a child to show that she cared. The creature held a spot in her heart as big as the one Cera was holding.
He lies to her though, and she knows it, noting that he says there is pain but it isn't unbearable. Who is she to question the talents of his bonded when they had clearly tried to help the situation? Would offering healing be seen as rude with no intentions of so? Within her mouth, her tongue twitches just as a small lump blocks her throat. Self control keeps her from crying again, she doesn't need to be as emotional as she has in this moment.
"Please don't lie. Everyone here knows what happened, and while I will never doubt Ilaria, you still need a bit more." While his body nears her, she doesn't nothing to avoid his contact, taking small steps to him, the weight of worries become heavier as she extends her neck out to him, intending to give more touch than their first meeting with a small hug. Careful to miss all of the places claw marks must be, she longs for the soft caress of his withers against her jaw.
"If I wouldn't be insulting her in anyway, would Ilaria allow me to finish what she began? It's her choice." She means every bit of good, whispering to the pair in a tone that tries to mask her sorrow that comes with the attachment of friendship. "Your wounds are more of my fault than your own, and I'd like to make up for them in any way that I can."
Deep within her body, buried below depression and the skittish ways of a wound animal, was her courage, was the bravery that once propelled her forward to save someone she'd held so dear in the past from the clutches of death, evil, the exact embodiment of the Devil himself. It'd gone down the drain with her childish ways when her memories were too thin to clog the drain pipe, washed out to whatever place the pipe it led to took them .

For her, he was the one couldn't stop her from smiling. Her worries wouldn't die, but each word spoken was a cure. The touch he gave her was more than enough, bathing herself in his embrace when they touch. Anyone else, she would of avoided it, having sweet memories of embrace by others who either ruined her or died, fading out like a flame in a hurricane. When he does pull away, she lingers, almost too long, resistant against letting because she fears he'll end up like the rest.
Permission is granted, and she keeps herself from how she reaches for his mane, intending to pull away the locks where wounds have made their mark. She doesn't want to look, but this is what she lives for, it's what she's supposed to do. A cringe passes her again. Internally, she scolds herself for cringing once more after the first time she'd done it.
"I'm sorry if it hurts. We need to wash it, to see what's truly wound. Do you think you could stand it?"
She hates herself more, knowing that clearing away blood with salt water will hurt more than anything else, but the journey to the lake is too far, and she is sure he's in no condition to head back.
Ears turn and fall limp at how he speaks to her. Depression clots her veins even thicker. Someone cares for me. At that, she pulls herself away, having removed his hair from his wounds and out the way, heading back to the ocean with a low hung neck. The waves touch her hooves where she stops.
"Thank you, it means more than you think. You probably saved my life back there, and I owe you my own for everything you've ever done for me." Mumbling slow, she pushes her chest against the waves moving out til it is chest deep. Her blues never leave him once she waits, trying to kill her emotions so that it doesn't kill her once more.

OOC: Soooooo sorry for the wait, and the quality. :c

While he hesitates her departure from his hold, she runs her velvet maw against a spot where she hopes isn't wound. The faint red that stains her lips is nothing when she looks him with pain, aware she's worsened what Cera must already be going through. How could she even be prepared for when the wound must be washed, for the pain salt water must bring him? With all others, it would be of been easier, knowing the wounds weren't because of her, or having someone she cared so deeply for. A short list of friends and trusted individuals combined with Cera's kind ways gave him a large spot within her heart, Ilaria given the same in how the pair had together touched her.
I'm sorry.
In the embrace of sea water, she drains her sorrows into, wishing her touch wouldn't being him more pain. If only there were words that brought better apologies than just 'I'm sorry.'
He lays before her, soft orbs watching every move the colt makes. When Ilaria slips into the water, a short lived laugh passes between blood stain lips. Her attention then goes to him, affection weighed down with self-loathe when she knows just how much the feeling of salt water is going to be when it comes to touching those wounds.
What he says next makes her heart warm, enlightened and overjoyed by feeling special just for once. Her happiness beams in her facial features like a lantern in the dark. "You always have the right words to say. Thank you," Now, her muzzle pushes against the surface of the ocean waves, body swaying as she allows the tides to take care of the majority, leaving her with less crimson stains. "for making me feel special like no one else ever has." It ends with the final onslaught of water, splashing it against where blood had become lumpy in the clotting process, rubbing the sides of her lips and face along his neck to remove the sticky remains of the attack.