Aryel's ears swiveled as a male's nicker interrupted her daydreaming. She lifted her head and turned to face the newcomer, blinking in surprise. She only seen his face once before, a long time ago, but she would have recognized the golden eyes and yellow hoof easily. Cormac was out of the water and back on land. She replied with an answering whinny, flicking her tail as he approached to stand in front of her. The other stallion, who had had the multicolored wings, was not with him, though. She wondered what happened to the rest of his band.

If he had spoken a little loudly, she didn't notice. Cormac had struck her as the boisterous type anyway. "Good to see you too, Cormac." she said, nodding. She noticed the shake of his head, and wondered if he had something was in his ear. Java yawned, exposing his tiny, pointed teeth, then peeked around her should to peer at the male. Had he not been a nocturnal creature, he would have been perched between her ears, sniffing at the male. As it was, the hot sun left him drowsy, and after a cursory nose-twitch, he settled on her shoulders again.

"So I see you've finally gotten out of the water. Happy to be back on dry land? What sort of magic did you get?" She was itching for a few stories of his stay under the waves, but didn't want to pry. She did not know, however, that he had been tasked with an additional burden, and that her words would not register in his ears. If she had, she wouldn't have known what to say at all.

(Ack, I need to stop posting during muse crashes.)

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"Talk talk talk talk."

Aryel blinked in surprise as he spoke, explaining his lack of hearing, then winced. Whoops. Well, that could certainly impede their conversation. "Sorry." she said, making sure her lip movement was exaggerated enough for him to discern. She gave him an embarrassed smile before trying again. "So how...was life...under the waves?" she asked, slowing her words and hoping he could differentiate between them. While she didn't like how it felt as if she was trying to talk to a very simple horse (She didn't even have to do that with Gaucho), she couldn't think of any alternatives. She just hoped he wouldn't feel insulted. "Did you...see anything cool?" Well, at least she might get a story or two out of it.

Even though his ears weren't working, his eyes obviously were. She couldn't help but notice his appreciative looks, and tried not to roll her eyes. It wasn't that she was annoyed. Cormac was a pirate, after all. By definition, they tended to be more flirtatious than most. Still, they could stand to be a little more covert about it. At the same time, she'd be lying if she said she was completely repulsed. Cormac was by no means ugly.

Java had obviously picked up on her feelings, as she was detecting a hint of amusement through the link she shared with the bat. She realized he must have only been feigning sleep to listen in. And what would you know, you little shrimp? she thought at him, embarrassed. You're practically a kid. Sometimes, the lack of privacy concerning her thoughts was really annoying. Java's amusement only increased in response.

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"Talk talk talk talk."

Spectacular, huh? Aryel couldn't help feeling jealous at his experience. Sure, she could fly and he couldn't, but there wasn't much up there other than clouds and birds. Under the waves had to be a different world entirely, one that she would likely never see. But Cormac had been lucky enough to spend a whole season there. Her ears pricked up as he spoke of just a few things he had seen. She tried to imagine such enormous creatures and failed. The coral reefs sounded a little like the patches of wildflowers that grew all around, but she had seen chunks of coral washed up before, and they didn't look like flowers at all. The only ones she saw were chunks of white stone shaped like small branches and dotted with small pores. In fact, the only things she had seen of the ocean where what she could glimpse at the seashore. Shells, seaweed, a shark's tooth, the grey form of a dolphin's back as it surfaced.

She laughed. "How about both? Or even all of it." she said, still making sure to make her lips understandable. Another idea came to her. "Was it dangerous down there?" she asked, tilting her head. "I've seen the teeth that wash up on the beach. I doubt they come from a plant-eating fish." She had never seen a shark for herself, but if what she heard about them was true, that was a good thing. On her journey to Helovia, she had met with a horse from a herd that made it's home in a system of caves in a sea cliff and frequently went swimming in the water, crossing the shallows to find food on nearby islands. More than one horse had gone out for a midnight swim and fallen prey to a prowling tiger shark. Big teeth, and cold eyes. Like wolves from the sea. That was what she remembered from the beach horse's description.

(Don't sweat it, getting small replies doesn't bother me ^^ Giving them, on the other hand...)

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"Talk talk talk talk."

(Lost the thread >_<)

She surveyed his new scar, wincing slightly. Bitten on the flank by an fanged aquatic beast. What a life this Cormac lived. She wondered why a small creature would go after a fully-grown horse, but supposed it didn't really matter. As he began to speak about the coral reefs, she listened attentively, interrupting with a few questions here and there. She imagined the bright rock-like formations and the creatures that inhabited them. So the fish in the ocean were not like the dull-colored animals she saw in the streams and ponds of Helovia, but bright and colorful? She wondered about the snakelike eels and the slow and serene sea turtles. The ocean must look like a rainbow with all those animals, she thought.

The part about coral being dead caught her by surprise. A living rock? Was that even possible? While the irony of a flying blue horse who lived in a world of magic and fantastic creatures wondering about living rocks was lost of her, she did find it interesting. "I'd love that." she said when Cormac offered to fetch her a piece when he got his magic. Who said pirates weren't nice?

Recalling his band, she asked, "And how are the Pirates? Were they glad to see you out of the water?" The only other Pirate she had met was the parrot-winged pegasus, but she hadn't even heard news of them recently. Had they disbanded or gotten into trouble?

Walk walk walk walk.
"Talk talk talk talk."