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He lost track of time as they continued to walk and he was only vaguely aware of the darkening sky as well. His attention remained focused on Regret for some time but he eventually realized that whatever that touch had been she did not need to say something to him. Perhaps he had imagined the touch? No, that's impossible. He felt the rats every time they moved upon his back and that touch had been far more than a rats doing, besides the two rats hadn't moved from their perch during the length of the walk. So what was the reason behind the touch?

He was too busy thinking on this to realize that they had finally reached their destination. That was until Regret spoke once more. He had almost forgotten about her, almost but not completely. That was a step in the right direction. Perhaps the male rat was right, that he did need her for some reason. And perhaps with enough time to think tonight while Regret slept he would have the answer to that question.

He glanced around at the trees and saw nothing special, which in itself was a good sign. He would hate to have spent the night in some green place with those things called flowers and be assaulted by their scent and colors all night long. This he could handle. Bringing his hooves to a stop in the small cluster of trees Thanos then glanced at Regret and wondered how this sleep thing worked. Was she doing it already? He wasn't certain, but he would wait til it happened before turning his focus to his thoughts.

It was like an eternity passed as he stood there watching Regret. And yet it felt like everything happened in the blink of an eye. It was strange how time could seem both long and short at the exact same time. Time and time? Could that word be used twice in the same thought but in different ways? Well clearly it could since he had just done exactly that. But then again, often times he would think or say something that didn't entirely make sense because his brain was so destroyed from the decay. So how could he truly know what was right and wrong? He could have asked the rats, he probably should, but he was too focused on watching Regret. She was looking around the place they had stopped, though he couldn't figure out why, there really wasn't much to look at here and then she glanced at him again.

He stood still and silent waiting to see what she would say or do next. There was a sigh and then...she laid down on the ground. Well that's not quite what he expected her to do. But then again he wasn't really certain what he did expect her to do. The living world was still a very confusing place and he was only just beginning to try to figure things out and find out how and where he belonged in it. He had come here for a purpose, and yet in this very moment that purpose eluded him.

"Now's our chance!" War chirped enthusiastically. "She is down and won't have an easy time getting up. She will be easy to kill."
"Stop being so cruel all the time." Peace squeaked at his sister. "Not everything is about death and destruction."
"If I hadn't promised mother to not kill you I would show you your own death." She threatened.
Peace let out another sigh, there really was no winning here.

Thanos gave his mane a shake. Sometimes the rats just weren't worth lugging around everywhere. But sadly he needed them, and apparently they needed him...but the one rat also said the he needed the mare. Why would all of them need something different and yet it all seem so similar? That question confused him more than he had expected. "How long does sleep last?" He asked, though it wasn't clear if he was asking Regret, the rats or himself.

Either she was choosing to be quiet, was asleep or dead. Honestly Thanos couldn't be certain and wasn't about to waste his precious thinking time trying to figure it out. He decided to stick around for a while to see what, if anything, would happen, but in the end Regret just laid there. He even thought about leaving...perhaps more than once, but he never made it more than a few paces away from the small clearing before he turned back, which clearly upset the one rat a lot. He would just shake his mane every time she made a fuss and went back to walking the thin mare.

At one point he had left, gone a bit further than his previous attempts at leaving, but in the end he had returned. Only this time he had brought something with him. But once he had gotten the thing and himself back he noticed that Regret was still laying there unmoving. So he did thing that made the most sense, he hid the thing in the hollow of a tree and then continued his silent guarding of the prone mare. Eventually she moved and spoke once more.

"Great you missed you chance to kill her in her sleep. Now slay her before she gets up!" The female rat chirped angrily.

The stallion gave his head a solid shake to quiet the rat and then focused his glowing eyes on Regret. "I...uh...yes." Had she expected him to leave? She seemed surprised to see him there...whatever surprised was. He stared at her for some time before he finally remembered that he had brought something back. He turned and walked over to the tree, sticking her bony face inside he pulled out a dull red-brown object and then came to stand near Regret. He stood there a moment before lowering his head and set the old dried up apple on the ground. Having accomplished his goal, though he wasn't sure why this was important for him to do, he took a few steps back to let Regret do whatever it was that she would or should do with the thing.

Thanos watched as Regret remained quietly for some time. It seemed to be a pattern with her, one that reflected himself, that she would be quiet for most of the time and then she would do or say something and then return to quiet. He liked that, whatever that meant, because he hated when individuals talked non-stop. His shattered brain couldn't keep up with such heavy conversations and honestly what most Soquili had to say didn't matter to him. But Regret mattered.

Wait, why did he just think that? Why did she matter?

He tried to think on that but his mind was currently blank and so he would have to try to figure that out later...if he remembered to do so. When Regret ate the old apple Thanos felt something odd in him. He couldn't describe the feeling, nor could he put his hoof on what it was, but he was certain that he had once felt that before, before he had become what he was today.

"I hope it had poison on it." War chirped.
"Oh would you stop!" Peace scolded her.

Thanos let out a sigh. The rats were such a pain, he wished he could just stamp them under his hooves and be done with it, but then he would be done because like it or not he relied too heavily upon them to get rid of them.

When she thanked him Thanos had no idea what to say. He didn't think he had ever been thanked before and honestly couldn't recall what the words thank you meant. He would ask the rats later, well one of them at least, though surely the other one would give her opinion. At the mention of moving again Thanos stared at Regret for a moment. He had to remember why they had to keep moving. Honestly he couldn't...but that didn't matter. "Right...uh...moving." He glanced around for a moment before spotted the area where they had entered the small clearing. He started towards it but kept his eyes and ears focused on Regret to ensure she was indeed coming. If she didn't...he didn't know what he would do.

Once out of the trees Thanos stopped. He could hear Regret's shuffling footsteps behind him and it gave him this odd sense of relief to know that she was following him. He glanced around for a few moments trying to remember what way they had come from and thus what way they needed to be heading. He didn't think Regret would want to go back the way they had came. But damn it all looked the same to him, green grass and trees in every direction, how was he supposed to know where to go?

"To the left." Peace, the male rat said.
"He probably doesn't even know what direction left is" War chirped with a laugh.

He snorted at the rats. Of course he knew what was left was...it was.... Well okay maybe he didn't know. But he felt a tiny tapping of rats feet on his one side and when he glanced back to see it was Peace tapping there, indicating what way he needed to go. That way the stallion looked like he knew what he was doing and War couldn't yell at her brother either. "This way." He said to both the rats and Regret.

He heard Regret speak of rain, though he wasn't sure what that meant. Was rain good or bad? He wasn't sure, but since she didn't seem all that concerned about it he just kept walking, heading to the left of where they had spent the night. He lead the down a trail for quite some time and only after a while did he look up at the sky. He could see dark angry clouds above them and the wind had certainly begun to pick up. "Rain soon?" He asked, not sure when it would happen. He liked the look of the sky in this moment, if only it could look like that all the time...then he would be happy...whatever happy meant.

As he continued to walk, his pace slow as to not leave Regret behind, Thanos thought over what she had sad. The wind was picking up and it had gotten colder. What did either of those have to do with the rain that was coming? More importantly he needed to sort out what both of those things meant. He was still getting used to these lands, how they worked, what everything stood for, but mostly he was trying to adjust to his own body. He couldn't recall how he had gotten to the state he was in or if he had been like this from day one. Everything was new to him and that was frustrating in it's own way. Add in the annoying narrative of the rats and Thanos struggled more than he should in figuring things out.

And now there was Regret. He still wasn't sure what to make of her. More so he still couldn't figure out why he was willing to let her join him on this journey to...wherever he was going. Anyone else would have been left behind. Or perhaps they would have been too sacred to even approach him. Apparently his looked were something of an acquired taste, whatever that meant. Did that mean Regret liked the way he looked? Too many questions and no answers to be found. Giving his head a shake he looked up at the sky. Was it just him or was it darker than before? Now that is the one thing in this world that made sense to him and that he truly liked. Darkness was his friend.

Something was changing as they walked but he couldn't quite put his hoof on what it was. Was it the wind? Or was it getting colder? A gust of wind came across the meadow and hit him, leaving an odd feeling on his coat.

"The storm is fast approaching." The male rat said.
"Maybe the mare will get struck by lightning and then we can go at a faster pace." The female rat chirped.
Both rats then decided to call a truce between themselves as the winds blew a bit stronger and climbed down from the stallions back and into his open side for warmth and shelter from the upcoming rain.

Feeling the rats move and then crawl inside of him Thanos stopped. He hated it when they did that. He gave his body a shake but it did nothing to remove the rats. Glancing back at his side the stallion snorted. "Get out of there." He demanded of them but they ignored him, they always did. Before he could do or say anything else something hit him on his nose. Raising his head he looked around to see what it was but saw nothing. Then he was hit again, this time on his rump, then on his ear. There was nothing here! How were things hitting him. "What's going on?" He asked, while still searching for this seemingly invisible foe as he was hit a few more times.

It was disconcerting to have all these things hit him and not know what was happening. If it hadn't been for Regret explaining that it was the rain that she had mentioned coming earlier he might have lost it more. He stopped looking around for this unknown and unseen assailant and looked over at Regret. She seemed pretty calm, which told him that this rain stuff was pretty normal. Honestly, now that he knew what it was he could almost ignore it. He still didn't exactly like the sensation of the water hitting him, but thought it wasn't bad compared to other things - what those other things were he wasn't sure, but surely there was worse things than rain.

He almost missed Regret's next words, a gust of wind hitting them as she said it. It would get worse? He didn't know what to do. The rats were holed up inside of him and they wouldn't come out even if he told them he needed their advice, and part of him didn't want to directly address them in front of Regret. With a sigh he looked up at the sky, getting a rain drop right in his nose. Nope, he didn't like this one bit. "What do we do?" He finally asked Regret, standing close to her so that he could hear her answer.