I feel like I always do. To an extent, so does he, when he's around her - he knows it isn't the illness that makes his flesh heat up like the inside of a volcano the moment he's within touching proximity of her. She looks to the water and relieves him of the need to come up with a reply, then breaks into a canter towards the open ocean. He follows, but speed is his weakest attribute even when healthy and, combined with the black tar clogging up his throat and making each breath a battle, it feels like it takes him an age to reach the water's edge.

His forehooves touch the lapping waves first, and without hesitation he follows the earth-filly into the liquid. The coolness is a potent pleasure across his body, and a small, masculine groan of relief escapes his jaws. He goes deeper, until the waves tickle his chest and ensure that every part of his underside is delightfully cool, unable to give him away with flashes of sudden heat. Isopia's sigh of relief tests this coolness to the limit, as the breathy sound is a harmony in his sensitive ears. His eyes flicker blissfully and heat does its level best to spread around his body, but the frigid water prevents it. Ha.

She uses her wing to wipe the ooze from her face, but in the absence of such limbs the beast has to settle for rubbing his own face on the taut flesh of his upper foreleg. Salt water stings his eyes, but it rids him of some of the hideous black goop. He wishes his dragon was here; those dextrous paws would have wiped the filth away in an instant, but alas, the red is far too busy stalking an unfortunate group of rabbits.

He glances at her, to see if she's revelling in the water as much as he is. His gaze travels downwards, and her legs are fading into the sea, blending in like she's always been part of it. He's puzzled for a moment, until he remembers their first meeting, when trees began to caress her limbs like promises. "You know," he rumbles, wincing again as the deepness of his voice sends shockwaves through his ears. "It strikes me that we have met several times now, but there is still a lot I do not know about you. Like what magic it is that makes you become part of your surroundings - is that a quirk of being the daughter of a God?" And your name, he wants to add, because surely she must have one now? Oddly, he rarely thinks of the fact he doesn't know her name, because he is still struggling to come to terms with the fact she - with her royal blood and pedigree - would become friends with a mongrel beast like him. Asking those sort of personal questions would, he fears, drive her away, and she is the most constant figure in his life save his dragon and sister. The notion of losing that pains him to his core.