Editing because Rayo is too fast

"Alright."

Her words floated out of the darkness, complying without objection to his demand. What Zero might have seen as a silvery glow - the eyes of the warg who had nearly killed him - might have melded to a warm bronzey glow, if indeed, Zero's panic-attack had been caused by Isopia and not some as of yet unseen thing still hiding behind her. With a warm trill, Hubris flew forward, holding the object which had been glowing. It was a small acorn charm on a bronze chain that glowed with a warm light. The dragonling had been holding it, liking the way it cast long ominous shadows in the darkening woods. However as he saw the panic on Zero's face, he quickly gripped it with a claw so that it would stop swaying back and forth. The shadows stopped growing and moving, and Hubris offered a sulky trill of apology.

The demigoddess moved out of the trees and towards the boy stallion (though he would forever be her childhood friend). The deathly markings on her face were contorted in something that looked like concern, and her golden stare was bright with the light from the acorn charm Hubris held. She might have said more, but there was another suddenly present, suddenly at Zero's side, who had taken the words right out of her mouth. It's just me. But those words sounded as if they were spoken with the same familiarity that Isopia herself might have spoken them. Immediately her golden stare narrowed, and the big mare had wished she had stayed in the trees. A species of jealousy wriggled inside of her, as recognition quickly came to her. She knew this mare - they had sparred together.

Despite the mixed feelings that writhed in Isopia's gut, was relieved to see Zero. There was perhaps no one in the entirety of Helovia that she would have willingly bumped into on this night, save for him. The day had been ... trying. That her Father had appeared out of the blue to address the herd was enough of a surprise to the status quo, but that he had decided to upset the herd hierarchy? To place her as lead alongside Archibald? It was a lot to process, but the Mountain was happy enough to do so. And so she had left the Falls to come here, where she might contemplate in peace. She had found the Woods to be particularly vacant at night (though she couldn't tell why - Isopia, who had never been afraid of the dark or the monsters it might hold - had always liked the dark and silence it promised).

Hubris, still holding the glowing charm, flew up high into a tree branch, allowing the light to spill down upon the trio, like a makeshift chandelier. As the light increased, Isopia (who was not so near to Zero as Sjal was), saw the wounds that lacquered Zero's body. She drew in a breath, wide golden eyes surveying him with a sterile curiosity. What could have inflicted those wounds? What had happened?

However before those questions could leave her lips, the unicorn is even closer to Zero, her muzzle outstretched as if her lips could somehow alleviate his pain (can they?). Confusion and a stunted-emotional vocabulary keep Isopia rooted where she is. A cold dread now sloshes through her legs. This feels like Volterra's betrayal all over again, though she quickly swallows away his memory for now, despite the similarities. Once again, Isopia has fooled herself into believing that because Zero was her only friend, then she was his as well.

Isopia's concerned gaze isn't satiated by Zero's awkward reassurance, or the laugh that floods from his lips. Normally that sound would soften her heart, but not today. Today the fright that still glistened like frost on his body, dancing over the ready-to-scar wounds made her heart tighten.

Then she laughed.

Isopia felt icicles form in her throat as the warrioress (Isopia was still clinging to that incredibly incorrect assumption) made a joke. As her gaze rolled to the demi-goddess, Isopia only returned it flatly, completely unsure of how to even categorize the emotions that she was feeling, never mind responding to them. Iso's golden stare returned Sjal's pointedly, then stiffly moved to Zero. Again that feeling of wanting-to-be-near-him-in-the-way-she-was-near-him returned, and the Mountain felt her knees lock in place as anxious jealousy rooted her where she was. Magic ran up her legs, covering them in mosses and dirt as she stared at the pair, spotlighted by Hubris' floating charm.

"What happened." She asked finally, her voice firm and unyielding. What did it matter if any of them smelled, when Zero had nearly jumped out of his skin simply because he heard the sounds of twigs breaking in the woods? Normally she would have assumed he would have run towards the sound, eager to find out what it was. And those wounds? Zero wasn't a fighter (or did she really know so little about her friend now?). Part of her wanted to chastize the unicorn for being so blithe, but she held her tongue. Perhaps Zero and this mare were ... more than friends Isopia stopped the thought, swallowing hard as she continued to search for Zero's sunbeam gaze. 

Please tell me you're alright. Tell me what happened, she thought desperately. And then, and please tell me I'm not wrong about you. About us.

Isopia couldn't handle any more rejection.

Hubris allowed himself to be the object of the boy's attention for as long as a distraction was needed. The dragon even offered a many-toothed grin, his cheeks bunching up into tight circles. If he could, Hubris would have swept down and carried Zero away, up into the clouds where he could think, and laugh, and look down on all of his pain and see how small it really was. But of course it was Hubris who was the small one, and down here, the problems of the boy's world seemed very big indeed.

Then again, some of them definitely were.

I think he's lying to me us, was Isopia's first thought, as Zero finally slumped his shoulders, peeled his eyes off of Hubris and began to speak. Zero was the most inquisitive mind she knew of, apart from her own. Even in the midst of being attacked by ... by whatever it was, she very much doubted Zero would have been so paralyzed by fear that his inquisitive nature wouldn't have gotten the best of him. It was a wolf! A ma, I think, cause there was some fluff an' maybe it was her cub? Really 's my fault for poking 'round where I shouldn't have been! I'm fine, she was just warning me to stay away, tha's all, she might have expected him to say. But what she heard was fear, and covering that fear, she thought was a delicate veil of non-truth.

Then as he continued, she knew he was lying.

'Cept then he died. I'm fine, though.

Isopia, like Sjal, knew only a little of the relationship that Zero had with his parents. And, like Sjal, Iso knew that Ampere had been vacant from the boy's life, at least lately. Yet to hear that they were all back together, seemingly one big (albeit fighty family, or so Isopia thought of them as), just to hear that his father had died, and that Zero was okay with it?

No. Either she had to believe that she didn't know the boy quite as well as she thought she did, or he was lying to her.

And she did think she knew Zero.

So why then would he lie?

With a scrutinizing gaze, Isopia watched as Sjal moved forward, offering an I'm sorry to the lightning-marked stallion. The Mountain's face appeared hard beneath her death-mask markings, as she tried to think. He was obviously lying for a reason - was it because he didn't want Sjal to know? She couldn't believe that her best-friend would deceive her unnecessarily, and she couldn't fathom a scenario that she couldn't handle.

Unless..?

All the things she might have said died on her lips, as the question of why he was lying, and more importantly, to whom the lie was directed, bubbled in her brain. So she merely stood, golden gaze fixated upon Zero, lines of silent scrutiny lining the deathly mask that she wore.