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This, Leo decided, sounded infinitely more relaxing than the other tasks she'd done so far. Getting mauled by turkeys, sliding off glaciers, fighting sand whales and climbing mountains made fishing up fish for oil sound like a dream vacation.

Which instantly put her on guard. Nothing so far had been easy, so surely there was a catch here as well. Which was exactly why she'd spent a good ten minutes pestering the villager - who'd given her the task - for details; were the fish ghoul-eating? Did the fishing rod explode if you didn't catch enough? Were they expecting a sand whale attack at the fishing spot?

Really, she'd been full of questions right up until the point where the villager, increasingly annoyed by her multitude of questions, had shoved the tin box with bait into her hands, swivelled her in the direction of the fishing spot and then shoved her off.

Even Leo could take a hint like that. With a glare and a huff, she'd stomped off, still pretty convinced that she was in the right to be suspicious - it'd been perfectly legit questions, considering the stuff the creeple in this village had thrown her into!

Finding a nice spot by the pond hadn't stopped her steaming either, and lost in her thoughts she'd completely missed the other ghoul arriving.

"Huh?" Blinking, the Mare focused on her companion, "oh no, go ahead! Sorry, was a bit caught up and didn't notice you there." Glancing to the ghoul's fishing rod, whale fin like her own, it didn't take long to put two and two together. "A villager put you up to this, too?"

But there was something else, something... she squinted, examining the newcomer and compared what she saw to her memory of her time as an Initiate. This ghoul... she had a definite Conquest flair. Leo's lips turned downwards. Ah.

But she might still be wrong - she'd noticed several students in school who could have passed for a horseman at first glance, as well.

Being wrong would be nice.

"I'm Leo," she introduced herself after a long, thoughtful pause.

This... didn't seem quite right. She opened her mouth, didn't know what to say and closed it again. The ghoul had just confirmed that she was, indeed, a horseman and then proceeded to curl up into what seemed like a defensive position. Defensive. From Leo, who was now feeling pangs of guilt for making Fia look unhappy.

She didn't act like the sort of horseman that the Mare had associated with the Lost Clans. Maybe... "No, it's alright - it's not you, it's," she paused, thinking over how to form her words. Leo didn't often think things through, but in the short interaction she'd had with Fia, the other ghoul had seemed to her as being quite fragile - entirely different than what she'd been expecting of any horseman. "It's me," she admitted at last, moving a bit uncomfortably in her seated position. It didn't feel right apologizing to a horseman, but it didn't feel right making someone who seemed sweet unhappy, either. "I had some bad experiences with horsemen," the words were almost dragged from her, and Leo didn't seem all that happy about it. Mostly the one she was unhappy with was herself, though. "I don't - I'm not very good with horsemen," she admitted at last, hunching her shoulders and looking half defensive, half lost.

It seemed Fia had her own demons too. Tentatively, she tried a reassuring smile - this was what she'd forgotten, lost in her own issues; all creeple were individuals, with their own emotions, personalities and histories, even if she disliked who they'd sworn their loyalty to. She'd thought the humans she'd killed were sheep, that the horsemen were heroes and then gone in the completely opposite direction and thought that all horsemen were terrible beings no matter what.

"Well, maybe -" she hesitated for a second before reinforcing her smile, "maybe you can make up for the disgrace, regain your honour. Anything that can be lost can be gained as well, right?"

Letting Fia hold her hands, Leo gave a small squeeze. "You already have, even if you didn't mean to. I forgot that you guys are creeple too, focused on all the bad and ignored the good bits. But you're nice, and I can't ignore that." There were still some things she'd never be okay with, but painting everyone with the same strokes wasn't going to make that any better.

"Scareling steps, then." Leo answered Fia's firm nod with one of her own, "you have a lifetime ahead of you, there's no need to rush. You'll get there."

This hadn't been at all what she'd expected of her visit to this village, but somehow it was cathartic. It felt freeing to let go of some of her prejudices, even if she hadn't known she'd had them - they'd been a burden on her all the same, and to be able to confront a part of her that she'd quickly found she didn't like was uplifting. "Thanks," her smile turned a bit lopsided at the returned compliment, glad for the connection they'd managed to forge in such a short time.

As Fia fished up her catch, she cheered, clapping. "You're doing great!" The struggle yielded a beautiful catch, and the Mare gave an impressed whistle at the sight.

"Yeah, let's hope so! Well, with luck like that I should probably get to fishing as well." Finally opening her tin box, she pulled out the worm inside and fastened it to her hook. Her movements weren't quite expert, but she'd definitely done it before. "Used to go fishing sometimes with the family," she explained as she got up to throw out the line. "Honestly, it was a big mess with all my brothers competing for best catch."

She didn't have to wait long for something to bite; soon, she felt a tug and after a brief struggle pulled up a fish that was strikingly similar to the one Fia had pulled up. "Guess they come in pairs," she grinned at the horsewoman.