For once, the cool air of the Aurora Basin felt welcoming to my tender burns and aching muscles. It seemed that the pain of battle was not at it's worst immediately following the fight, but rather the few days that followed afterwards. Though my fight with the large fire-welding stallion was invigorating and rejuvinated my soul, that son of a bitch packed one hell of an unexpected punch. His blood had now dried and hardened to the tips of my horn, enhacing the deep red stains of battles prior, and I wore it like a badge of honor. The chilly winds dulled the throbbing aches of my muscles, and my burns were starting to hurt a little less with a thin protective scab forming over the raw tissue. They still looked like hell, but at least it felt like an improvement.

I was originally headed back to my cave, ready for a good long rest and some much needed relaxation. However, a pair of voices some distance away caught my attention. Auds pricked to try and determine the owners of the voices, but I was familiar with neither of the feminine tones. With a sigh, I mulled over the possibility of ignoring them and going to my cave after all, but I decided to follow my curiosity. There was no telling how long it would be before I would leave my cave once again once I settled down, so I might as well make an attempt at being social while I could. Hooves danced over themselves as I turned towards the voices, head bobbing slightly as I took my time walking to greet them.

When the two figures came into view, I recognized the new Lady - Ophelia I believed it was. Her name had not gone unnoticed to me, for it seemed all the herd had been a buzz when she was announced as the new Lady. I couldn't understand what could possibly be so special about her, from what I could recall she wasn't even in the herd when she was announced Lady. If she was, she certainly wasn't for very long. Dark chocolate eyes studied the ivory mare, resisting all urges to pin my auds back into my mane. Aside from the red accents and the spiraling horn, she had many resemblences to my lost phantom, Morphine. Frankly, I didn't appreciate the reminder. I would have to do my best to maintain my show of respect for her, but I did nothing to lower my crown to her. She may have been superior in my ranks, she may have been the idiotic precious choice of the Spark God, but she had done nothing to earn my respect as of yet. And until she did, I would keep my crown equal to hers. The same test had been put towards Illnyx, this snowy mare would be no different.

My gaze drifted lazily towards the mare beside her, an unfamiliar face with a rich chocolate coat topped with whipped cream hair and long dark horns. I noted the small skull hanging around her neck, curious about the kind of creature it was and how she had acquired such a trinket. 'Why hello there, little truffle.' The left corner of my lip twitched at the thought, a rather dark fantasy beginning to visualize in the back my mind as I approached them. Instead of giving away my sadistic thoughts, the twitch pulled back into a warm smile that could fool even the best behavorist into believing it was genuine. "Good afternoon, M'lady. I don't believe we've truly met yet, I am Panzram, a Phantom. " I introduced myself with a dip of my nose towards each with a friendly nod. Neither would ever suspect that I was imagining that the Lady wasn't even in existance, while I ravished the little truffle in ways that made her plead for mercy. No, to them I was merely a spy introducing himself to his Lady that happened to still be injured and bloodstained from his latest quarrel.

As the shorter mare introduced herself, the broad welcoming smile relaxed into a content smirk, ears perking forward with curiosity as she studied my body. Oh yes, take a good look little miss, and be sure to remember my name. Her name was interesting, unique, one that I had never come across before nor anything like it. But when my eyes dropped to the small skull hanging around her neck, I could not resist coming up with a new nickname for her. 'Prey.' I kept the nickname to myself, avoiding giving away any intentions. I couldn't have been more amused by the nickname, for it had so many reasons behind it. The name was not only a strange way to shorten her name, but also marked that she wore gory trinkets as though they were her trophies from hunting, and of course...She was quickly becoming a target of mine, so what better name to call her by than Prey?

I was so intrigued by my own thoughts that I almost missed her question entirely, just barely making out that she had mentioned the scars across my body. Some old, some new...If my hide could talk, every scar would be able to paint a macabre image for the mind, telling their dark stories behind each one. One corner of my lips pulled into a tighter smirk, a deep chuckle rumbling from my throat. "Ah, years of collecting such scars and each one with a different story behind them. I wouldn't want to bore you with their history." Twisting my neck to look back over my shoulder, I pointed to one of the fresh burns that I had earned in my latest fights. "These burns however, I recently received from a large hybrid that relied heavily on his magic to protect himself." My auds temporarily flicked back at the bitter thoughts of the fire arcs and shapes that the stallion had thrown at me. I couldn't blame the stallion too much, if I was getting my ass handed to me, I'd use magic to keep the attacker at bay as well.

When I turned to look back at the new mare, movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. A brow raised as a vaguely familiar mare joins us, her shape and coloring recognizable but apart from that she was as much a stranger to me as she was to Waprevah. Dark eyes took notice of the friendly smile towards Ophelia, yet how her nod lacked the same emotion towards myself. Respectfully I returned the nod, given that she had not yet given me much reason to ignore her. I had no problems with her not wanting to offer her smile to me immediately, skepticism was something that I had grown accustomed to long before Helovia. My eyes darted up towards the strange raven, one brow raising at his white feathers. Never before had I seen a white raven before, then again...There were many things shown to me in Helovia that I had never come across. I logged the pair's names away for future reference while gingerly flicking my snowy tail against my flanks.