Skill: Ranger 1/5

A new land. This one, not so isolated. Rushing waterfalls crashing down upon the world, and Honoka stares down into the pit below.

She will have to learn the passages up and down these falls, memorize them so well that she can run them in her sleep. For now, though, she merely takes note. This is what she has always done: observe, note, classify. She does not know if this is where they will be staying, not in truth, but she has little else to do.

If she stays sitting still for too long, she will go insane.

She mutters the notes of the land under her breath, passing each one in turn. This way, a path downwards. Will the low grand be advantageous? Defensive? The pools, a danger or a boon?

Too much to consider. Her nostrils flare. Another approaches.

Honoka's head jolts up, then slinks back down again as she sees Apple. "My lady."

The constant rushing of the water was a comfort, one Apple didn't really expect. She supposed it reminded her of home; of the river, rushing past her den since the day she'd been brought into this world, of the to and fro of the ocean after Petra moved the Kingdom. Water had always been a key features in her home (though she supposed, in any good territory, this was true), and the sound of it offered the newly paranoid Dusk some sense of stability.

Of hope.

Apple padded along without any real set direction, simply keen on exploring and getting to know the area before their decision was set in stone. She didn't really mean to follow Honoka, didn't even realize she was until the taller woman's dusky brown frame blotted into view further in.
Her head bobbed up, and back down with a formal greeting.

How odd it felt, to embrace a royal lifestyle. Not that she didn't grow up as such, but at home... most of the Kingdom were Dusks, royals, and they weren't what most pictured when one thought of a prince or princess. And even so, her father, even as the firstborn, was a bastard -- Cerberus and his children would have to fight hard if they ever wanted to be in line for the crown.
Now here they were, doing what many Dusks in generations before them had; separating from the main group to start (or marry into) their own place, living lives of their own, spreading the name and blood of the Dusk Kingdom.

Apple offered a wag of her tail and a happy little tilt of her head as she and Honoka saw each other, lengthening her strides a little to join the other woman. It was... easier, to be around her than a stranger, though she was not the same comfort as her littermate. But the golden Duchess had to keep reminding herself that others weren't her enemy, that the stupid pig had been wrong about her kind, that he hadn't gotten to her.
She had to remind herself that once, she was open, and had fun, and trusting.... and she'd never known any happier existence. Could she go back to that?

She noted the way her companion stalked forward, one ear twisting.

Are you alright, Honoka dear?

Maybe she'd been working too hard.

That's a loaded question.

Has Honoka been all right since she woke up two years ago? She doesn't think so. Things that die don't come back right, and each breath she takes threatens treason. She takes too long to respond to the question Apple offers, though no other emotion shows, if only because it's hard for her face to pick one.

"No worse than usual," she decides. Lying is not a good look, but she also won't draw attention to the wounds that have gone necrotic. Let her heart rot for all she cares.

"This is a beautiful land," she continues. "I take it we are looking for a place to settle. Do you have any idea of where you wish to stay? What features it may have?"

Apple could feel the weight behind her question, and she regretted asking almost immediately as silence paired with the beat of her heart. Her features crumpled just a small degree as she realized she'd hate to be asked that very same question right now, but Honoka was graceful in sidestepping it and choosing a new topic. Still, Apple tucked away the answer for later: no worse than usual. With a knowing, somber look to her, Apple just nodded and let the topic slip. Her heart ached with empathy, but it felt like there was some invisible wall she couldn't pass when she reached for some form of comfort.

Not good but not sinking lower is sometimes the best one can ask for.

The area was a much easier topic to settle on, and Apple smiled again, thankful for Honoka's consistency, grace, and stony kindness. She was always so... stoic, so perfect and lady-like. She made her think of her Oma Petra, of the great-grandmother Islanzadi she was named for but never got to meet. Strong, royal women with a good head on their shoulders, who did what they needed to get done without hesitation.
Apple had always dreamed of being like them. Of being looked up to, and reliable, and beloved.
Now she just felt like the coward, the silly little Dusk who got kidnapped by a cat and held hostage by a pig, who feared the things that went bump in the night and hardly trusted her own kind.

But yes -- the land.
Apple didn't have to force her smile wider, at least.

Apricot and I have rather taking a liking to right here, if it continues to prove suitable, she offered, casting her teal gaze around them fondly, Though we'd both like to search the desert for somewhere with more likeness to our old home, we also know its more practical not to. Our birthplace, it was dead quiet all my life; nobody wanted to visit or join a pack who lived in the only oasis in a long stretch of sand.

She couldn't imagine it would be any more popular of a choice here. Oma had left the desert and found somewhere more tropical, but Apple hadn't stuck around quite long enough to see if it'd gotten any more lively, if the Kingdom got many more joiners or travelers. Though, these days, it was hard to look at the idea of hiding deep in the wastes never to be seen again and move past it...
Apple sighed, lolling off into the dreamscape of her own mind. Yes, the things she'd do to be able to go back to the gorge, to curl back up in the caves and hollows of the island in the middle of the river, lulled to sleep by the only source of water in the desert.
She wished she'd never left the Kingdom. Even if they weren't at the Gorge anymore, even if their home was an island with terrain more like this, she still wished she'd have stayed bored at home; spent time convincing her parents that they should settle in and stop wandering, kept her littermates safe instead of dragging them out to AdVeNtUrE.

I'm not sure we've had much more in mind for a new home than comfort and the basic resources, to be honest with you. We helped our Oma when she moved the Kingdom, but that felt.... different. More real. Some days I feel like I'm just... floating on by in someone else's fur, convincing myself I'll make a decent Duchess, or watching myself in a nightmare, barely holding onto what's real.

Apple was smacked with a wave of bashful embarrassment, ducking her head and lifting a paw to her face to wipe along her cheek with exasperation -- trying to pass it off as a slight itch.

She wanted to say something, to move on, but suddenly her voice was stuck in her throat.

Yeah, the land was so much easier to talk about. Maybe she just wasn't supposed to talk at all anymore, if she only knew how to be awkward or scared or... weird.