The violence she expects does not come, but she does not stop looking for it. Her gaze skates over his expression as she withdraws, although there is not much to glean from him. It was almost as if his eyes had closed beneath the weight of her scrutiny, which was an absurd notion. She had no power here, much less the strength to overwhelm the silver stallion.
The silence stretches for a moment, full of awkward tension that neither of them seems willing to break. Sonorae isn't really sure why she hasn't already melted into the greenery to lick her wounds, only that she felt imprisoned by the knowledge that she had nowhere to escape to. Sonorae, he finally murmurs, and the sound of her name in his mouth makes her inhale a sharp, steadying breath. She didn't like being known, although it wasn't as if her name carried any true weight to anyone other than Rougaru.
Temblor's attempt at humor earns only an anxious wrinkle of her brow, and her gaze darts briefly to where the grullo stallion had disappeared. Was he? She honestly wasn't sure. They had very rarely interacted despite sharing a herd, and she had never really paid him much mind. As Rougaru's son, she had trusted him to behave himself and while she had never really spoken with him before today, she had erroneously believed that he was as trustworthy as his father.
Her mouth opened as if to answer verbally, but she closes its again only a moment later and shook her head in denial instead. No, she didn't think he was always like that. He couldn't be, she thought, or else Rougaru would have never chosen him to inherit Paradise. Rae's gaze flicked back to Temblor again, and while she would not say that she trusted him in the slightest, her fear that he was going to lash out immediately was abating.
I find the sound of the surf soothing, he murmurs, and she cannot help the flicker of curiosity in her gaze. She couldn't imagine a stallion like him needing soothing at all. So far, his confidence and unshakeable disposition had given her the impression that he was a solid bulwark against which all of life dashed itself. Like the spotted stallion that had taken advantage of her so long ago, she had assumed that he also simply did as he pleased without regard to those beneath him, regardless of the consequences his actions bore.
His invitation was met with silence at first, her emotions too conflicted to give rise to a coherent answer. The problem was that she didn't need to be soothed. She needed to see Rougaru's face again. To curl herself against his side and feel the brush of his comforting touch over her skin. The knowledge that she might never see him again sat like a heavy stone in her stomach, impossible to ignore and yet Sonorae also knew he wouldn't want her to give up on life without him either. Rougaru was a fighter, and while Rae was probably the farthest thing from being one herself... she could at least keep herself alive until (if, her mind somberly interjected) he returned.
"Okay," she answered softly, mistaking his offer for a thinly veiled command. For all of the illusion of choice, Rae did not see it that way. His steadfast fierceness implied to her that he would not kindly to any refusals, especially after Annubis's petulant display.
She didn't lower her gaze from him as she stepped closer and then to his side, hesitating just long enough for him to take the lead. Her happy place was usually deeper into the jungle, where the monotonous droning of insects did the same for her as the ocean likely did for him, only without the feeling of being exposed by the open area. She wasn't sure how long passed before she spoke again, but the ocean was already peeking through the trees ahead when she finally did. "Are you-" she stumbled over the words, not even truly sure why she was asking anything other than that she wasn't sure she wanted to answer too many questions. "-Are you new to the islands?"
