The closer she gets, the more she felt as though she were interrupting some sort of meditation, facilitated by the thick scent of jasmine in the air and the cloying fog. With the muted light glowing over the curves of his muscled body, he looked far more like a work of art than a living creature, which only heightened the feeling of otherworldliness. It was far more intimate than she had anticipated and her resolve faltered, feet stilling in the lush undergrowth even as his statuesque form moved, an ear cocking toward her at the sound of her voice.

He had grown larger in her memory; a creature of monstrous proportions and unknown motivations. Fall had only breathed life back into her old fears, and she had found herself questioning his manners all over again, terrified he would seek her out for his own gratification as the spotted stallion of the Crossing once had.

But he hadn't.

She didn't know if he feared Annubis' lingering ire (doubtful, considering how easily Rougaru's son had abandoned her in his anger), or just had a general disinterest in her company, but she found herself grateful for it all the same. Disinterest was always safer than the alternative, which was perhaps why she had found herself relaxing again now that the other, younger mare was here. Rae knew that given the choice between a skittish mare foisted on you by chance and a beautiful young mare you'd chosen for yourself, the answer was obvious.

Join me, he invites, jolting her from her fawn-like freeze at the edge of his sanctuary and swallows down the unease to accept, stepping tentatively through the fog curtain to stand tensely at his side. His instruction spawns a soft frown on her lips, but she considers how to answer him. In truth, apart from the general unease of spending your every waking moment trying to avoid all other signs of life, the past few months had been uneventful for her.

Rae had lived here long enough to recognize the signs of a hunting big cat before they could lay their claws into her, and she was adept at avoiding the vines carte blanche after having one drop down on her and hiss early on in her stay. Apart from a near miss with a patch of sandy mud that had sucked dangerously at her hocks and nearly stopped her from climbing out, Sonorae had been able to lose herself in the familiar rhythm of her jungle home.

"I've been fine," she murmured softly, peering at him from the corner of her eye. "I... wanted to apologize." Her gaze flicked apprehensively to him and then away again. "You asked me to... help you adjust, and I don't think I did much to help." Rae carefully edited her words, avoiding mention of it being an instruction rather than a question and tried to lift any implied blame from his shoulders to her own. "What I mean to say," she said hastily, shifting on her hooves. "Is I'm sorry for that."

"You, um, you seem to be settling in pretty well...?" she tried after a pause, her gaze flicking to him and then away again as her observation turned into a question of it's own.