Mauja the FrostHeart
ice cold man watches earth die, eternal winter takes its reign

It was a curious meeting indeed - he glanced briefly at the dull-black mare, how she seemed to shy away yet stare at him with disconcerting, hungry eyes. The white just above the fierce orange irises seemed to give her a perpetually surprised expression - for now, he hadn't noticed her deformed maw. She was shaking her head at his question, and beside him, Couth said no. Mauja gave a small shrug and lifted his head off the water's surface; a few faintly red droplets, like water-diluted blood, clung to his muzzle before falling down again. It looked like it was on the verge of being macabre, the red tipping a few of his whiskers, but his snowy countenance was at odds with any such notions. There was peace in his eyes, a softness that lurked on the edges of his smile. As he nodded, the two raven-black feathers behind his ears waved gently with the motion, tickling his warm fur - a stray ray of sunlight caught one of them, lighting it up in deep blue. "Seems like it," he agreed with her, but the question aimed at the skittish equine caught him off guard. He'd not come early enough to see it weave ice into Couth's mane, only the stone it had gifted October with.

He tossed the pegasus a brief glance, seeing nothing yet, before returning it to the lissome black - she seemed nervous, twitching, as if she was about to run away. He furrowed his 'brows; she didn't seem angry, just.. scared. Was it something they were doing? Was he frightening her simply by virtue of being who he was? He didn't know whether to be pleased or disturbed by it, but then she blurted out that it - whatever it was - was warm, like the blood in the pegasus' wings, and he saw the shape of her muzzle. Her lips were deformed, giving her a rather crazy look; they fit together like teeth when she closed her mouth again. Her statement had been bizarre, to say the least, and he wanted to ask her how she knew that her blood was warm - what if it as cold, cold as winter? He didn't, though. He kept quiet, arching one 'brow as he took half a step forward, not wanting to frighten such an interesting creature away. All he wanted was to get a better look at her mouth, but he stopped himself. It was slightly rude, and while he didn't really care about it, he had an image to maintain and to send her running would be counterproductive. He had a feeling the pegasus might berate him for it, though he wasn't quite sure why.

Instead, he rocked back again, turning to peer at Couth's mane. He saw it now, how it had been braided and set with ice. Strangely enough it didn't seem to melt, but he guessed that was what she had been talking about. The black mare had been given a stone that looked like an ember. Apparently, it was warm. Mauja tilted his head. "I've never seen anything like it - neither that stone, nor the creature who gave it to you." He glanced over his shoulder at the red pool. What was this place? Blue eyes flickered back to his current companions, curiosity in them. Who were they? Why were they here? Perhaps understandably, but most of all he was interested in the black mare with the strange lips - but he sensed that there was something about the pegasus that he shouldn't underestimate. Compared to the black girl, she seemed fairly normal, but things aren't always what they seemed. He knew that quite well. But in the end, he simply asked, "Do you come here often?".