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Needless to say, Ochoco had always liked the mountains.

It wasn't so much that he felt they were beautiful. Quite the contrary. He thought they were cold, bleak monoliths looming on the horizon, shattering the sweet beauty of the blue sky with their stark colors of white and gray and black. On the outside, at least.
Inside, however, was a different story. Several caverns he had found on one of his many childhood adventures had strange marks on the wall, interesting, but not exactly what drew the young colt to enjoy the solitude the stone caves presented.
In one cavern in particular, waves of bright gold rippled across the walls, sparkling faintly in the light from the odd luminescent pool in the main chamber. He never quite understood why the water glowed and he chose not to drink from it because of that, drinking from the non-glowing, smaller pools and only when needed.

In this colder weather, he had been coming here more and more often to escape the bitter wind, finding that the stone was slightly warmer, if he was far enough inside.

As a colt, he would sneak away from his brother and sister and mother and father and come here, where he would pretend to fight off wolves and mountain lions and other creatures that would normally gobble him up. Sometimes he thought about bringing Wica there, but then he would always decide against it, or forget.

This was one of those pretend times, as he paced across one side of the cavern, his head low as if he were staring down a ferocious beast. The creature snarled and gnashed its fearsome teeth in the young stallion's mind before the gemstone male charged, rearing up and bringing his hooves down upon the phantom enemy.

He smiled at his game, unaware that he would be having much more real company very soon.

Ochoco pranced around his slain foe for a moment, imagining it wailing for mercy. He frowned at this and looked off. What would he do, in such a situation. For all he knew, the monster could return. But would he really ever have the heart to kill those that threatened him but then begged for mercy in the end? He considered thinking more deeply on this, but stood dead still, his ears pricked back towards the entrance to the cavern.

Click, click, click, click.

He spun around facing the entrance just a vision stepped into his view. She could only be a filly, she was too lithe to be anything but. Her white coat shown with the light from the pool, her hair reminding him of the lighter colors of a sunset, her hooves tipped in pink with swirls climbing up to her knees, and her wings... He'd always ha a fascination with wings.

He honestly expected her to say how she thanked him greatly for defeating the monster that, in his imagination, had been whimpering at his hooves, as she could only be a daydream, right?
'I mean, what would she be doing in here of all places? Especially when she could be out flying,' he thought to himself as he closed his eyes, shook his head, and opened them again.

Nope, she was still there. Maybe she wasn't a fantasy after all...

"Uh... Hi?" His greeting sounded more of a question, especially since he tilted his head slightly when he spoke.

Ochoco blinked for a moment, registering her words.

"Oh, no, not at all. I was just, um..." he looked around for a reason to be there, ANYTHING to keep from sounding like an idiot. And of course his gaze would fall on the veins of precious metal snaking over the wall.

"No, I was just admiring the walls in here," he quickly explained, almost letting out a sigh of relief. He looked at the walls and did sigh at that point.
"Isn't it amazing,-... " he began before frowning and turning back to her with a smile. "I'm sorry. I'm Ochoco, and you are...?" he introduced and then patiently waited for her name.

Ochoco bowed his head to her, smiling. She was a rather cute mare, especially with that little slip earlier. He figured that the best route would be to ignore the slip and go along with the rest of her statements.

"The pleasure is mine, Maui," he said and looked around. "Yes, I have been here before, many times. I like how I can be alone here," he added, then realized what he had said.

"Oh, but I don't mind you being here. It's nice having company and I wasn't really doing anything..." he more or less blurted out after turning quickly to look at her again and smiling a little more awkwardly.

Ochoco looked around the cavern after she asked him to give her a tour, so to speak, around.
"Well, there isn't that much to see, but for the colors in the wall," he explained and his searching eyes fell on the softly glowing pool. He smiled and flicked his braids from his face.

"Of course, if you'd like to see something interesting, I can show you what lives in the pool," he offered, taking a couple of careful steps towards the pool's edge, a place where small, fish swam blindly, their milky-white bodies almost see-through.

Ochoco smiled at Maui, happy that she was enjoying herself. Until, of course, she accidentally dipped her muzzle into the water.
He immediately lunged forward, carefully helping her face up and rubbing the water away from her mouth with the side of his own face.
"You need to be careful, Maui," he said in all seriousness. "I'm not sure what's in the water in here, you didn't swallow any of it, did you?" Crystal eyes met green and he couldn't hide the worry in his. He knew now that he could heal himself and others, but he wasn't sure he could help illness.