//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Time Swims On, and Adagio Dazzles Sonata // Story: Follow Her Lead // by Ice Star //------------------------------// Nata is still scared long after the shark has left, but I'm more concerned about the filly with the gold scales who was attacked. I've got her in my hooves, since she's barely awake. At least I've been able to distract Nata from the blood floating in the water for now. She doesn't look to be much too older than me, and she was out here all on her own. She should have done something about those scales of hers too, unlike Nata and me she has gold-orange scales and very wavy fins like she's trying to be the sun or something. How'd she get left alone for this long? Where's she even from? You usually don't see any equine faces up 'round these parts where the water is cold and the reefs are few and far between and the sun is blocked out by the weird clouds that float on top of the water. She must of took a wrong turn or something. I try to use a hoof to stop some bleeding on a nasty trace of a bite wound that is almost too close to her neck, and would have killed her had we not showed up by accident and Nata's screaming not distracted the shark. Even after all these years out here, she's still an idiot. I mean, the 'game' is still going on and everything. When I turn the filly a bit, I see that she isn't a seapony like we had thought, because right in the middle of her chest is her shining red heart. She's a siren too. Nata and I have never met another siren before. They tend to live in the cities and have jobs that those like Nata and I couldn't dream of - especially Nata. I've heard from Aunty that they dazzle the court of King Neptune and sing powerful battle songs as soldiers. There's no way some highborn siren like that could be out here, right? "Aria, can we keep her?" I look into Nata's pleading face. She's begging again but this time it's not over food or something silly. This time it's over another creature. "Nata I'm not sure, I mean when she wakes up she might have to go back to her home, or wherever it is that she's from, you know?" "But I want her!" Nata shouts, "I want her, I want her, I want her!" "Ugh, Nata be quiet unless you want to attract another shark." "But I promise to take super good care of her!" "What about food? Unless this colorful dolt knows anything about, well, anything we're gonna need to get her more food and you already eat a ton as it is." "She can have my lunch!" "That isn't going to help." Plus she'll just complain that she's hungry. "She can have my breakfast too!" "No, Nata she can't." Nata starts to whimper and if this goes on any longer she's gonna be crying like the twenty-dozen times I wouldn't let her keep the sea cucumbers she found. "But Nata..." "W-what, Aria," she pouts. "...It might be against the rules." She looks down at the sea below us, "O-okay, but we can still help her, can't we?" "Yes, Nata, we can do that. The rules allow it." ... When we're back in the cave we've been staying at Nata can't wait for anything, as usual and I'm subjected to like a gazillion questions on her part. "What's her name?" "Do you think she likes those wraps that you make?" "Can she catch dinners too?" "Can I be her friend?" "Why's she orange?" I drop the siren filly on the ground, but hey, I'm sure she won't mind. She's probably off in dream land, anyway. "Nata you can't just ask others why they're orange!" "Can she sing, though?" Nata never learns. Even after years out here I'm still trying to figure out how anyone got her to do anything. All she does is talk and talk and talk, and did I mention she talks? When she's not talking she sings, after all, we gotta practice our singing no matter what. It's fun too, but I always end up as trying to take lead, since I'm the only one who can come up with decent lyrics, but Nata's got the better voice even if she thinks that 'Sonata' and 'oyster' are a good rhyme. I guess it's better than total silence. I wouldn't like that and neither would Nata but noise isn't always helpful but I guess I've become used to it by now. I've become used to other things too. Like I'm technically old enough to Surface now which ought to be useful when we finally find some ponies 'cause they just had to live so far away from anything good. Nata's been old enough to Surface since forever, but we really can't have her just popping up in the Overworld. I just wanna know how much farther north is because we've been doing this for years, and how far up north can these ponies possibly be? Nata's dumb giggling in the background draws my attention, and then I see that she's got the crudely made spear I made a while back clumsily gripped in her forehooves, even though she's seen that I wield the thing in my mouth. Having to manage Nata is, unfortunately, an experience that requires my hooves to be free. She's using the end of it to poke the gold filly's side. Gods above, I hope that golden gal hits Nata when she wakes up, because that's so incredibly dumb. "C'mon, silly, wake up!" "Wakey-wakey!" "Rise and shine!" Nata suddenly shrieks and I jump when one of those gold forehooves reaches out and grabs the spear from Nata's grip. The gold filly sits up and tosses the spear aside. One forehoof moves to her neck and rubs the wound a bit. She opens her eyes, which are a similar color to Nata's and looks around our cave but she doesn't look terribly confused like I thought she would. In fact, she almost looks calm. "Where am I?" she demands, and those eyes of hers bore into me for the first time.