O N N I
back then our bones wouldn't break, always fighting to stay awake.

The shaman did not know Mauja well enough to gauge his emotions, but the smile which carved lines onto his face appeared sad, even if the resolution of his figure was blurred at best. It makes the lines of Onni's own eyes tilt in a melancholy light, helpless to aid him in anything more than company. How long had he been separated by this wall of a different world from the one he knew? Surely, the white stallion would be lonely without anyone except his bird to keep him company. She knew well enough that Lyhty was not the best company, for while he was pleasant and had a lovely singing voice, the songbird could not hold conversations with her like she and Mauja were experiencing right now. It saddened the mare to imagine being lonesome, for the painted girl was never far from company in the Throat. Her pleasant nature made Onni easy to get along with, even if she was a bit awkward at conversation.

The Frostheart, however, was left without this option. A bit selfish, but Onni was quite pleased that she was getting to know the statuesque figure that she had only briefly encountered before. He had appeared like the snow itself. Cold, distant, yet graceful and beautiful. The regalia of his form had kept the modest little healer away from probing his personality to carefully, remembering the time their small party had climbed the Veins to seek the guidance of the Gods. She had been the only in the party without a crown on her head, and this was more humbling than any one Leader would be on their own. Still, she had felt like the small acquaintanceship gathered from the interaction with the Ice King had been pleasant enough, even if it was strictly cordial. Now, he was more real than ever, despite the flickering edges of his body and the shadow of madness that crosses his face. In trying times, the grips of our masks slacken, given those nearest a glimpse under the exteriors we parade around.

A tad naive, but Onni believed that if Mauja was normal enough to grow anxious, mad with loneliness, and feel himself slipping, that he was not the cold monster her painted up in front of all. Mysterious and distant, but not here in her sky blue eyes as a shadow of a smile plays out on his features and he shrinks from her touch, though she cannot meet him. It is sorrowful, in its own right, to see him step away with lines of light chasing after his mirage of a figure, but the shaman is hardly offended. There was no ties between this odd pair, aside from their location.

Faces grow distant as Onni looks forward toward the edge of where the would be an ocean for the stallion, with no scent of salt tainting her nostrils, there was almost no way she could imagine his world. Closing her light eyes, the painted girl tries, foolishly hard, seeing the Endless Blue with Sparrow once more, but still not feeling the world that the Ice King stood in. She could almost hear the seagulls, feel the mists of the water, but it was gone in an instant when she opened her eyes instead to a crimson tide bathed in sunlight. Foolish girl, thinking she can easily slip through the barriers of time. It is not so. It has never been so. It never would be.

I would be grateful. Onni's eyes snap over to the unicorn's flawless face, even blurred upon the edges, a smile burst past the seams of her lips as she watches him in the sunlight, the blue of the sky reaching through his figure to smile back at her even if he would not. "It would be my pleasure," she says, a cheerful voice returned to her chime-like tones, half singing it to him. Lyhty chirps in response, a little trill of a song that matches her bell of a voice, the pair jolly as always. Perhaps, even if her touch could not reach him in this distant Helovia, the warmth of her smile could. To transmit an ounce of happiness would make her feel full, like a child praised by their mother. "If there is any way I can help you return, I will." She nods, turning her face back to look out at the red ocean with a smile. She would help and ask nothing in return.