It all seemed rather like a dream, or perhaps more accurately a nightmare. One she had experienced time and time again whenever she had gone near so much as a puddle of water since her harrowing experience as a pup. She had survived living off of the rain that would get caught in leaves or in the slight crevices of rocks. Only in the most desperate of times did she crawl on her belly to the edge of a lake or river, her pink tongue flashing out quickly to lap at the water before she would dart away again, as if afraid the water would attack her. The only reason she had walked willingly over the frozen lake was it had merely seemed a continuation of the land, her sporadic mind not comprehending that Ruieze Lake still lurked beneath.

After the traumatic experience and despite the uncontrollable shaking of her small frame her mind, for once, seemed clear again. Her dark and creamy fur was plastered to her body, the freezing water running in rivulets down her gentle curves, but encompassed within the warmth of the gray stranger’s embrace she felt the fog clearing from her mind for the first time in what felt like ages. For that reason alone she would never be able to thank him enough, and beyond that he had undoubtedly saved her life this day with the most heroic of actions. As her two toned crystalline eyes turned toward his face she cannot help the adoration and thankfulness that covers her features, nor would she want to for she owes him more than he will ever know in this moment.

She tries to focus on his face, making sure she remained grounded so that her mind did not take to wandering as it was often so wont to do, and she finds the light ring of lavender circling his otherwise dark eyes. It is a bit entrancing she finds, the way it they are set in his masculine face and catch the glint of sun off snow. His words seem to drag her from this resonant peace they had brought, her body continuing to convulse and shiver as it fought the hypothermia that threatened. “Sleekwing,” she breathed in repetition of his name, the word shaky and almost uncertain but fitting for him. She tucked her small head into her chest, rubbing her nose against the damp fur in an attempt to both warm and dry her freezing snout, glad for the warmth of Sleekwings body still pressed closely against her own. She drew her creamy paws up beneath her fragile body and curled her long, soaking tail up so that it almost touched her nose.

Tightly curled against him made her look smaller than ever and as her brilliant eyes closed once more against the tremors she is happy, for once, not to be alone. Of course he is not going to let her simply curl up and fall asleep, no doubt that would be the fastest way for the aftershocks of her ordeal to take her. At his question her head raises once more, purple and azure eyes blinking blearily up at him as she tries to process the questions, beginning to feel rather sluggish. “Ad… A… Adelia,” she finally manages around the shivering and teeth chattering, shaking her head slightly. “I wanted the… the flower out th- there.” She motioned with a turn of her creamy marked head, pointing out to the island in the middle of the ice-gripped lake where it was now quite obvious no flowers were. Her head lowered almost ashamedly, looking down at her knees and tucking her forelegs more tightly beneath her. “I fell into the ice,” she said finally, the words barely above a whisper as her body shook once more, though this time it was for her fighting against the tears that now threatened to spill over.

Every muscle in her body seemed to ache, having tightened so much from the cold and water still dripped from her sodden pelt, falling into her neon eyes. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs before standing suddenly and stretching first with her head down and forelegs stretched out, then pulling forward so her back legs were extended. She paces silently away from him before giving her small frame a hard shake, flinging a slurry of ice and snow and water in all directions. For a few moments she just walks in circles, trying to release the tension of muscles that were quickly feeling sore before walking back over to him. Gently she lay back down beside him, balling herself up once more so that she seemed a fraction of his size and hoping he might wrap the warmth of his surprisingly soft fur around her once more though the intensity of her shaking had diminished slightly. “I’m sorry,” she says again, though this time a bit louder, “I would have gone out there if I knew… I just thought, but then it wasn’t a real thought.” The words are perhaps a bit cryptic, but the last few years of her life were a haze to her, blurred memories of things that didn’t make sense to a more normal mind frame and inwardly she was terrified of falling back into that world once more.