Sorrow and trepidation still hold her incapacitated against his side, her elegant face pressed firmly against the solid wall of muscle that she rests against. She cannot know that he compares her to a shell. If she had, she might have felt confident enough to smile, warmed by the thought that she may be pretty enough to pick up from a beach and keep on your shelf to look at later. No, she knows only that her exhausted slumber had been filled with dreams so indistinct and disorienting that she awoke fearing that the whole world would be as blank as her memories.

Even now, in the sleepy pre-dawn grey of early morning, she fears he will reject her as thoroughly as her past has. Handicapped by the dual chains of sleepiness and self-doubt, she is certain that he will see her for the burden that she is. She cannot offer anything to him, and may yet bring danger to his doorsteps. After all, she does not know who, if anyone, left her in such a state on the shores of the Crossing.

But she wants him to say yes.

In the few short hours of their acquaintance, Rougaru has become her beacon. Not only does he seem to understand this strange place that she's washed ashore, but he's been so kind to her. Even now, with her skin saturated in a heady mix of ocean salt and his musk, she relishes in his nearness. The fear that had colored her first interactions with him had faded at some point through the night, melted by the gentle embrace he wrapped around her as they slumbered.

With nothing but empty air beneath her feet, Rougaru had become her ground zero, and she wasn't sure if she could handle being parted from him.

He curls to place a gentle touch against her cheek and she smiles shyly at the affection in his eyes, her heart thrumming wildly. His words only cause her smile to deepen further and she shivers against him in an emotion that she cannot name. A part of her cries out in dismay at the way she is freefalling toward something she can barely describe, let alone handle, but it is silenced by the way her heart feels. So much of what she could remember had been tainted by sadness or fear or uncertainty that she couldn't help but grasp onto the first thing that brought her joy with both hands.

Our home, he says and she floats on the wave of contentment it creates. Her eyes shutter closed as he tucks the pale strand behind her ears where it might join the black strands that contrast against the pale ones. She is still tired from the swim they finished mere hours past, and her stress remains untouched by the fitful rest of moments ago, but she sinks gratefully back into his side at his gentle command.

She stays there, quietly at his side, not quite asleep and not quite not, lulled by the promise his words had given her. He would still be there when she woke again and would not abandon her to the unknown. When the sun finally rises enough to cast rays of warmth on her speckled hide, Sonorae sighs softly and allows her gaze to reopen and focus on the beautiful beach that spans out before them.

She hadn't known such a beautiful place could exist and it seemed far too perfect to be real. If it wasn't for the steady presence of the creature at her side, she might have thought she was only hallucinating. Rae couldn't remember her childhood, but she thought it might be the kind of thing she had only dreamed of. It was fitting that it was called Paradise. "I can't believe this is real," she murmurs softly, allowing her gaze to wash over the surf as it rolled in gently to brush across the pale sands. "It's so beautiful."

Carefully the too-thin mare shifts her weight so that she is back on her own feet, and she shifts to look at him again, a small smile on her lips. She stretches to brush her muzzle hesitantly against the corded muscle of his shoulder, still reveling in the way it made her feel. She pauses before she speaks, her ears tipping back momentarily before pricking forward again. "Thank you."

Flicking the silvered strands of her tail, the speckled mare turned her attention bashfully away from him again to survey the beach that stretched away from them in a silver ribbon. "Is the whole island yours?"