For the time being, he simply lay there, observing her, his dark eyes following the gentle rise and fall of her ribcage with every breath she took. Sunlight glimmered in the hollows of her collarbone, gathering like liquid gold before cascading down her shoulder. An unfamiliar feeling stirred within him, not the cold calculation of a strategist evaluating an adversary, nor the detached amusement of a celestial dragon watching lesser beings. It was something softer. Warmer. Like sunlight penetrating frozen earth.
"It’s a pleasure; for a moment, I thought you were a rescue party, but of course, no one is coming here to provide assistance."
As he laughed, a deep, resonant sound that reverberated through his chest and into the ground beneath them, the irony was not lost on him. They were both diminished beings now, reduced to grazing creatures with hooves and tails, their celestial titles rendered meaningless in this expanse of grass. His own transformation had been unintentional, a cosmic jest played on a man who once commanded others with a mere flick of his glove. Yet here he was, nibbling on clover like an ordinary horse, his horn curving backward like a misplaced crown.
"Then this is the perfect place to rest; we are quite safe here, so you are welcome. Company is company, I suppose, though the last group here refused to listen to anything I had to say, idiots."
As he rolled his eyes, he truly hadn’t intended to arrive on this island at all. The storm had capsized his ship three months ago, an embarrassing fate for a God's Knight, and the currents had tossed him onto these shores like discarded fruit peel. When he had awakened half-drowned in the shallows, his first instinct had been to call for his subordinates. Then he remembered: the transponder snail in his coat pocket was now coral-encrusted debris at the ocean's bottom. His second instinct had been to transform. Not into his hybrid form for battle, but completely. Hooves instead of hands. A tail instead of a coat. For the first time in years, there was no protocol, no audience. Just the salt-crusted beach and the primal urge to run until his lungs ached.
"You ought to have stayed away from here; this place is not for you. The other zoan users didn’t last here for long."
He yawned slowly, keeping his gaze fixed on her, his tail lazily brushing against the crushed clover. This movement stirred a cloud of pollen that danced between them, golden specks glimmering in the sunlight like tiny constellations. His eyelids grew heavy, half-closed, yet he remained focused. There was something mesmerizing about how her white fur undulated with each breath, how her horn refracted the light into colorful shards. For a being who had always been enveloped in luxury, this raw simplicity was almost shockingly beautiful.
"They were captured and undoubtedly taken off this island to be sold. Oh, one more thing, please try not to panic, thrash around, or run; it will only attract unwanted attention, but you're stuck like that."
He exhaled softly through his flared nostrils, the sound just enough to rustle the clover between them. His ears twitched as he pondered her inquiry about his duration of stay. How long had it been since the storm? Three sunrises? Four? Time seemed to blur here, only measured by the shifting shadows across the meadow and the gradual relaxation of his once-perfect military stance into something more natural and fluid.
"This island forces you into your zoan form and keeps you there, allowing the humans to round you up, capture you, make it permanent, and ship you off for sale. How dull and frustrating."
As he yawned, he spoke in a dull, casual tone. "Go ahead if you want." It was the first thing he did when he stopped running months ago, turn back, and nothing happened. Not a single thing, as he encountered others who were trapped, but they were weak, foolish, pirates, marines, traders, people in these forms, and they all got captured while he remained in this area, keeping to himself, waiting for rescue. "Sorry for the bad news," he remarked, yawning again and glancing at her. They always took the news poorly; good for her, he was in a talkative mood, having not had a decent conversation in over a month with anyone else trapped here.
"There are others out there, hiding and such; you might find them if you want, but larger groups don’t last long. Your powers are gone as well, sorry, so much bad news, zzzzzzzzz." As he dozed off, he shook his head. "I ugh, apologize, I wasn’t expecting company!"
