Warm. Why was it so warm? The fawn moved through the trees all alone, her belly swollen like a fat puppy full of worms. Her already narrow face appeared to be hollowed out from the inside, high cheek bones pressing sharply against delicate skin; the pain was not only plainly disguising her face, but cloaking her entire body. The fragile woman merely appeared to be a skeletal frame holding a belly full of rot that may explode at any given time. Her withers and spine sat in a jagged line upon her body, milking the sickly look she already wears. Sweat dripped down the back of her legs and trickled from beneath her thinning mane that reached over either side of her scrawny neck in messy chunks.

      It's only Birdsong. Why is it so warm? 'Is it just me?' she wondered as her pulse thrummed in her ears.

      Despite the heat, she moved along. She needed water - they needed water. While her body carried what weight she had kept, her mind ran back home to her beloved Dameon. Why had he left her? How could the man she admires promise her eternal love - deep, sappy love that would make their children roll their eyes -, a home... a true family. He had given her everything she had so craved her entire childhood. He embraced her body and each and every scar. "They make you, you Addie." he would always remind her.

      ...Addie. Would she ever hear the nickname again? She tries hard to swallow back the pain and forming tears, but it's difficult when your mouth has been bone dry for hours. Instead, her rough tongue presses on the back of her teeth, trying to find any saliva that may have formed since her last check. The child inside her belly twitches and stretches, her barrel flexing in response to give it more room. A single tear drips from her left eye, finding a route around the rough edges of her face to fall to the thirsty earth.

      The sun finally reaches the middle of the sky, noon bringing nothing but more unbearable heat. She has to have reached Helovia by now. Or was she even headed in the right direction? It had been years since she had left. Since they had left. The antlered woman sighed outwardly, trying to focus on something else. 'One, two, three.. four, five, six -' each quiet step was counted out in her head, slowly steering her mind away from him again.

      A large tree with upright branches and small, waxy leaves stood by itself among all of the tall, thin white barked trees and produced a small halo of shade. The ghostly pale woman quickly shifted her point of interest, now hiding below the thick branches in the warm shade. Her ribs rubbed against the smooth bark, the life inside once more moving around uncomfortably; it had to be a rather large child, as she still had an entire season to go before the child should be brought to this world. Dameon was a rather large man in her mind. Though, standing just higher than a pony, it wasn't difficult to seem like a giant compared to the fawn.

      Cyan eyes closed to the bright light of the day, images of a painted man with golden-dipped wings and godly eyes appearing in her head. He had helped her upon her first arrival to the gates of Helovia. She had been looking for her sister, Arvakl, but her weak legs and famished body could no longer take her body any further. There was a woman too, she recalled, who had watered the weak girl while in a half unconscious state.

      They had saved her life, and she couldn't even remember their names.

"Speech"

      Footsteps crunched on the dry grasses and narrow twig-infested path just ahead of her, causing Adelis to pick her thin face up once more, aquatic eyes resting on a creature that moved oddly on his feet and balanced himself out with a massive tail. Confused, her ears pressed forward and her large Arabian nostrils fluttered loudly; he even smelled odd compared to the rest of Helovia. "Oi! Hey! I have one for ya!" Quietly she tipped her head to the side, trying as hard as she could to place the accent, but finding very little similar tongues. She had been exposed to so little in her life, this was probably a very common accent that she had yet to stumble upon. He ambled toward her still, a big grin spread across his hybrid face.

      "Whadya call a deer with no eyes?" The question twirled in the young fawn's head, brows pulling down slightly as she though. "Uhm, I'm not sure. What?" she inquired, curious as to what a deer with no eyes would be called. "No eyed deer!" he exclaimed, a laugh genuine enough and loud enough to infect the sweating woman's own soul. She smiled broadly, an exhausted laugh trying to light up her bright eyes. Dark hair hung loosely over her scarred face in thick, damp coils. The smile felt good on her face, she hadn't laughed in weeks.

      Whatever the man said after that she had not caught, partially because of her own laughter, partially because his accent was so difficult for her to understand. But still he offered another one, her brain over-focusing on his words as he spoke to not miss a thing. "Whatdya call a deer with no eyes n no legs?" the silence only hung around long enough for the brutt to shake her head back and forth, the smile still pulling her dark lips upward. "Still no eye deer!" it took a moment for the emphases on "still" to attach to the fact that the no-legged-no-eyed-deer would be - in fact - still, but when it did, the antlered woman laughed once more, her bright eyes dancing in the shallow happiness that took over.

      The hybrid man grew quiet, crawling toward her with a new expression of care unfolding over his long face. "G'day lovely, what's got ya knickers all up in a knot?" The bright smile faded from her dark maw, struggling to stay on the edge of a fake grin. Besides the fact that she was uncomfortably pregnant and sweating, there was an entire life she had just lost and a world of pain that she had previously buried after finding a loving home. She looked down at the man with tired eyes, the corners of her lips pulling up just enough to possibly offer him a bit of reassurance. "I'm just very tired and-" she moved awkwardly on her back feet, her back popping as she did so. "ready to have this baby."

The air felt dewy on her hide, but the stranger looked comfortable and unbothered by the weather. 'It must just be me.' she whined in her head. "I'm Adelis." She finally offered, ears turning to their comfortable positions and no longer straining forward.

"Speech"
@Banjo
Ooc: Sorry it took so long to get back! Banjo is so cute and funny, c: