Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sun was still rising as Gaius trotted down the path to the beach. He'd taken to wearing shorts more often with his latest change, the hair on his legs providing sometimes uncomfortable levels of insulation, especially when he sat out in the sun.

"Are horses even supposed to have this much hair?" he wondered to himself.

Best way to beat the heat, aside from lounging in his duplex or hanging around the shady areas under the trees, was of course to swim, and that's what he intended to do today. He had his blue and white swimtrunks and a towel over his shoulder.

As he stepped onto the sand, Gaius found his feet were still quite susceptible to the hot sand. Hot-footing it across the beach, he dropped his towel above the waterline and splashed into the ocean, letting out a sigh of relief as he got in up to his thighs. "Aaaah..."

He would have wiggled his toes in the wet, sticky sand if he'd still been able to. As it was, he got a little movement from his big toes and not much else. Letting himself sink down into the water up to his shoulders, Gaius found the water immensely relaxing and he just drifted a while.

The horse-man first caught a glimpse of Cody's body out of the corner of his wide vision. Instinctively, he jerked his head around, the movement startling his prey mindset. The second sighting, Gaius was able to make out the dark dorsal fin and tail and smiled to himself. Ah, a dolphin! And really close in to shore for some reason! However, the third sighting corrected that assumption. Gaius blinked as the wet-haired boy's head surfaced, gasping in air, and then disappeared again with a breach of his finned back.

Understanding slowly dawning on Gaius, a smile spread across his face. It seemed the horse-man's presence hadn't been noticed yet. He watched the boy's movements for a while carefully, and slowly began moving into position, standing in the water so that the boy would either have to run into him or dodge around.

"Oomph!" Gaius had failed to take into account how fast someone part-dolphin would be swimming and had expected it more to be about average human speed. So, when Cody ran side-long into Gaius' legs, the horse-man was knocked back down with a grunt and landed on his tail with a great splash and flailing of wet wings.

He wasn't upset, though. The mistake had been his own! He was just worried the kid might have gotten hurt in the process.

"Whoo, quite a motor you have there. Sorry about that! You okay there?"

The horse-man raised an eyebrow. Honestly, from a distance, he'd thought this dolphin-person was a girl. The slight frame and all... Perhaps a bit young, but he didn't realize how young. And now up close, Gaius could see it was a boy, probably no more than twelve at most. But so much of him was still under the water, despite the tropics being quite clear, it was difficult to make out the extent of his changes. His clear face and shoulders said that he'd yet to change much, but the length of dolphin tail suggested otherwise... And he'd yet to notice the lack of legs.

As it was, he was sitting about chest-deep in the water, long hair dripping from his arched neck and shoulders.

"Nah, nah, I'm okay... fish, huh?" He said and gave a loud snort, trying to clear the water from his nose. His expression was one of concern as he looked down at the dolphin boy. "You, uh... how old are you? You don't look very old to be out here by yourself..."

"Dolphin! Dolphin, right right," Gaius chuckled at the misunderstanding. He'd been referring to what Cody had been chasing, but he didn't need to correct that right now.

"Ten... huh. So they'll even experiment on kids..." Gaius' friendly smile faded. Compared to himself, this boy hadn't even had a chance at life yet... How did he feel about that? The sad thoughts were quickly hidden behind another bright smile. Wanting to indulge the kid a bit, Gaius asked, "So, what kind of fish are you catching out here anyways? Is it a game you play?"

Gaius' smile slipped. "Wait, you mean you catch the fish... and eat them? Raw? With your own hands and stuff?"

He'd heard of sushi, but the equine in him revolted at the thought of... ugh, raw flesh!

"Well, I guess that's not so bad..." Gaius said in response to the fish answer. "I mean, at least you're happy with it, and I guess it's healthier than twinkies?"

He blinked as the kid seemed to find his voice, spouting off questions one after the other.

"Whoa!" Gaius laughed, holding up a hoofed hand. "Me? I eat normal food, mostly. Not a lot of meat anymore. I guess more veggies and fruit? And, uh... Shenzi? You know her?" His smile brightened. "She's a nice girl. And yeah, I guess you can say we're similar. No, I'm not a bat. They've stuck me with a 'pegasus'... uh, a horse with wings, you see." He scratched at his nose, looking a bit bashful. "Er, the name's Gaius! What's your's, kid?"

"Cody, eh? Well, nice to meet you!" Gaius grinned and extended a three-fingered hand for the boy to shake, then glanced around at the water he was still sitting in.

"So, you catch fish out here? With what, your hands? Or do you use a pole or something?"