Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was hot. Very, very hot. Well, it was summer, after all, but the north was so much more humid than the more southern areas Gamma was used to roaming at this time of year. What he wouldn't give to be near the mountains. At least they wouldn't be as blasted hot as these plains were. Sweat poured down his green frame as he trudged toward the nearest source of shade, which was too far away for him to be happy about spotting. Grumbling, he could feel his mind wandering into some odd thoughts. This heat was reminding him of something. That's right. Eta was abandoned on a hot day like today, wasn't she? Her and Zeta.

The weight of the guilty thoughts that followed that musing slowed his progress further. Instead of quietly sliding into the shade of the tree he'd found, he all but collapsed at the tree's base. He shook his head once to get at least some of the sweat off, but most of it clung persistently to his skin and mane. Letting out a huff, he gave up and laid his head down. He started to close his eyes, but then he thought he saw something. A splotch of bright color. Was he hallucinating, or was something really there?

Gamma's eyes had slid closed briefly when he heard quick footsteps. He forced his eyes open again as a voice asked him rapid-fire questions. At least, he assumed they were addressed to him, since he was the only one around to his knowledge. His gaze focused on coral-colored hooves, a sand-colored flash going back and forth across his vision. The voice sounded feminine. A mare, then? There was a nice breeze falling on him now, too, which helped the shade take the edge off the heat. Deep pink eyes lazily shifted their gaze upward towards the mare's face. "You talk fast," he mumbled, unsure if he should bother talking to her. After all, he was half-convinced that he was hallucinating. But if maybe talking, even to a hallucination, would be relaxing. Or just tiring, like it usually was. "Who are you?" he asked after he found the energy to speak again.

Gamma's vision was quite a bit fuzzy, but the mare seemed to change posture when he spoke. Her apology almost made him crack a smile. His sister Beta would have simply rolled her eyes at him and kept talking happily at her lightning-fast pace. "I'm Gamma. And I'll be fine... just hot and tired." And possibly hallucinating the mare he was talking to. He was almost tempted to say it aloud, but he decided it wasn't worth the energy he'd have to spend to do so. Though he wanted to say something else, he really wasn't sure what to say. For all of his intelligence, Gamma was almost void of knowledge concerning socializing--even just idle banter. How did one start a conversation? Beta would just jump right in, but Gamma was nothing like his sister. What did he say? His tired mind gave him no good answers, so he just watched Alyssa's tail swish back and forth.

"Is it?" Gamma mumbled at the first comment, more to himself than to the mare. Was he truly a nice person to meet? Possibly, if only because mares kept meeting him on days like this where his gloom could be mistaken for exhaustion. He gave an unenthusiastic shrug of his shoulder to her first question. "I suppose food would help," he replied. Whether she wanted to get him something was up to her, though. He blinked slowly a few times as the sand-colored tail accelerated in its swishing, pink eyes now having a harder time of keeping up with it. But it also pulled him out of his heat-caused stupor a bit, and the breeze was god-sent on a day like this. A pink eye attempted to look up at Alyssa's face when she spoke again, but his blurry gaze couldn't make out much so he defaulted back to watching the tail. Where he was from, huh...? "Nowhere in particular," he replied. "I'm staying with my younger sister and her adoptive family, but only temporarily."

"Because everyone who meets me seems uncomfortable and adamant to 'fix' my apparently infectious gloom," Gamma replied unenthusiastically. Except Kadenza, but she'd also not noticed him at first--and sat on him as a result. He thought on Alyssa's next words as she went in search of food. Everyone is from somewhere. But where was he from? He didn't know how to reply to it; he'd been traveling since he was old enough to walk, and didn't really remember where he was born. He wasn't like Beta, who'd found a place to settle. He was still roving around, loosely anchored to his sister's home.

As for it being nice to stay with family, Gamma wasn't so sure. Yes, he loved his sister and was protective of her, but he was also easily annoyed with her. She was loud and seemed really happy, but occasionally a silent sadness that hung over the mare when she was by herself. Plus, her adoptive family was huge. It was suffocating at times to be around so many Azreins, as well as several humans. He didn't have anything against humans, but they tended to make him uncomfortable.

His thoughts were broken by the quiet thumps of fruit being piled in front of him. The heat-reducing breeze returned too, followed by Alyssa's voice. "I eat whatever is edible," he replied simply. Then, as an after-thought, he added, "Thank you." He couldn't see her smile with his currently limited sight, but he could practically feel the sunshine coming off of her. He munched on the first fruit, recognizing the color and taste. An apple. He'd had a few with his sister. The next was a shape he recognized, but had never had before: a pear. It was... interesting. The third he had to inspect for a moment or two, as it was a similar color to the hooves not too far away. This fruit was different from the other two. It wasn't--when he finally confirmed that it wasn't part of Alyssa--hard or crunchy; it was soft, juicy and sweet. It was also slightly fuzzy on the outside. The taste was very different from what he was used to. He devoured the peach eagerly, then went on to the other fruit around him. They were all good and much better than his usual diet of grass and the occasional patch of clovers, but the fuzzy pink fruit had been the best.

When he finally finished, his pink eyes lifted to look at the mare. Though still unenthusiastic, his gaze was sharper now, more aware of his surroundings. Alyssa's face finally came into view, and he inspected her purple eyes thoughtfully. He wasn't sure what to think of her. She was nice almost to the point of being naive, but she wasn't as loud and... well, overly enthusiastic like his sister and Kadenza were. How strange. He couldn't recall meeting someone with a personality like this before. Haides mate and Beta's adoptive mother both came close, but neither were quite the same as this mare. For some reason, he found himself a bit curious. Unfortunately, that likely meant she was equally curious about him, and he probably didn't have the answers to the questions she would ask. An aimless, cowardly, life-long wanderer like himself wasn't very interesting.

Genuine. That was the word that game to mind when he listened to Alyssa speak. Her words were spoken with a level of kind sincerity that he wasn't used to. She honestly believed that there was something good and interesting in everyone. What was good or interesting about him, he wondered. He couldn't think of anything.

His ears perked up at the sound of her giggle. It was a... pleasant sound. He paused in his fruit-munching when she mentioned that he seemed to have loved the peach. Ah. So that was what it was called. Made sense. It peach-colored, after all. Was that where the color got its name? His ears perked up again at Alyssa's offer to retrieve more peaches. But then she asked a question and he was temporarily distracted from the prospect of more of the sweet fruit. "No, I haven't," he replied.

His pink eyes widened slightly as they inspected each other, a little stunned by the mare in front of him. Her expression was pure sunshine that glowed even more when his gaze met hers. Sparkling amethysts set in a face the color of peaches and surrounded by sunlit strands of golden mane... It was a strange feeling that was washing over him. Everything else seemed to melt away, even the heat. He was curious, but also content not to satisfy it. But the curiosity reflected in Alyssa's own eyes reignited his own. "Where are you from, Alyssa?" The question was out of his mouth before he even realized he'd opened it to speak.

(( His thoughts are waxing poetic. I think this is a good sign. ))

Despite his dazed state, Gamma noticed when the mare tilted her head at him. What was she thinking about? Had he done something odd? He was curious, curious to hear her opinions. But he didn't ask, as she was replying to the question that had already been asked. The desert and forests... Also... "We?" he repeated questioningly. Her parents most likely, and possibly some siblings as well. Or a herd, perhaps?

Gamma watched Alyssa dart off after she finished speaking to grab more peaches. Did she not like speaking of her past, or was it simply a convenient time to go and do the task? He happily ate one of the peaches she placed in front of him before looking up at her again to ask another question. "Is there... something you wanted to ask me? You seemed puzzled before." He was extremely curious about Alyssa now. Part of it was her personality, but he had also never been so stunned just by looking at another Azrein before...

"I see." A herd, huh? He wondered what it was like? There had been his mother and his eldest brother, but with a few, brief exceptions, that had been the only company he kept until Kadenza had led him to Beta. Perhaps it was similar to Beta's adoptive family, except more mobile.

Gamma nodded his understanding of Alyssa's explanation to her hesitance, a little grateful. She was considerate, much more so than many others he had come into contact with. Her question made him blink a few times, a pink undertone slowly spreading across the green like pink blossoms. "Because you're the first Azrein I've ever met that I couldn't tear my gaze away from," he replied, feeling a bit awkward admitting this despite the honesty of his words. "You're the most beautiful mare I've ever seen. For a moment, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me." But his eyes were clearer now, and they confirmed his original conclusion: she was indescribably beautiful.