Dark eyes ran carefully over the curves, angles, and carvings in the inscriptions on the monoliths. Around her the air vibrated with the eerie, mesmerizing song that tugged at some point within her. While practical, there was a fleeting moment that the icy huntress considered that perhaps Gonnoth was speaking to her. Afterall, she had visited on numerous occasions. Though, fantasy and imagination were hardly in her repertoire of skills and the childish notion shattered just as quickly as they had materialized. Her audits swiveled, straining to listen through the overwhelming buzz, when she heard another set of hooves tracking the dusty road.

An ingrained need to always knew who was at her back turned her head, and her hinds instinctively stepped away from the blush and sepia pegasus and her pet. Instinct had her grabbing where a quiver and bow would have been had she not lost it in the Fall, and she was swiftly thankful that telekinetic appendages were unseen. The lion seemed to tame, even offered to be the voice of the duo in the absence of the femme making a remark. As he posed his question Arakses' eyes flitted towards the next figure who was drawn like a moth to the monoliths. She'd never forget the silver and umber doe she'd found looting E'renthus' tavern, especially considering she still had the bottle from said excursion. A flicker of a grin twitched along her khol lips as Az'ira answered the strange couple for the both of them.

"The feeling is mutual," she admitted to the one party she was inclined to call a friend. "Perhaps even doubly so..." she commented again, her gaze turning back to the ringing monoliths. The mystery of the stones seemed to rekindle as she appraised them once again. Everything had been nominal in the region as of late. The days even blurred together with their monotony, and there was little to be concerned with by way of predators or ne'er-do-wells. By this account, what had inspired the stones to grow, if not climax?

Two others followed - another pair - and Arakses offered only assessing glances in greeting. Everyone's face read of curiosity, quaffing any potentiality of these equines knowing anything additional about Gonnoth's curious state. Arakses shifted, once more succumbing to the mental imagery of moths to a flame.

Yet it was not fires or warmth that Gonnoth provided, but cold and water.

The stones cracked, and even though she had been eyeing the ethereal glow Arakses still startled. Before she could jolt back, or bark out warning to her fellows, frigid magic swept betwixt her legs, lifted her from the ground, and overcame her. Its blinding light forced her to closer her eyes, and by the time the liquid cacoon slipped away, she felt terra firma beneath her. Yet as soon as her hooves met land, she knew that they no longer stood at the precipice of Gonnoth’s rings. As her eyes adjusted, she could smell the salt as it beat in the tumultuous winds, feel the moisture in the air, and hear the crashing of great waves. When her charcoal eyes fluttered open, the dark, churning waters crashed against her legs.

Around them oppressive fog walled the group into the shallows, almost seemed sentient as it pressed them further into the sinister waters. A cage… it was like a cage… Arakses’ heart quickened in her chest, and her breath grew shallow and quick despite her conscious effort to fight against it. A cage… she’d been caged before. Her eyes sank below the pitch hue of the sea, spotted where her hooves were submerged.

Chills ran down her spine.

All of her appendages were stripped of muscle, sinew, and skin and only bone remained. Unconsciously a leg snapped out of the water, and she watched, dumbfounded, as her familiar pelt and leg materialized out of the water’s touch. ”What the fuck…?” she breathed, just before the pegasus cried in fear. Each of their own submerged hooves was victim to the same illusion: bones beneath, flesh above. Her eyes found Az’ira and for a moment she stared at her friend, watched for her own reaction to the… startling turn of events, before looking back to the water again.

She’d swam an ocean to seek asylum before. No matter the trepidation, she’d navigate sea’s again for freedom. Testing the… illusion, magic, whatever the hell it was, Arakses strode several paces forward. Dark, din waves crested her breast and lapped at her neck, its touch frigid like the snows of the home she’d escaped. So cold, in fact, a gasp erupted from her lips before she had the chance to stifle it. Her body rejected the temperature, shivered against it in protest, but she still forged on with her investigation. Below the surface, more of her had transformed, taken upon itself a skeletal appearance. ”What in the Fountain’s name…”

The mountain lion breached from below, obviously communicating with his bonded, before disappearing once again. Wordlessly she followed him, disappearing below the waves with little indication of what he'd shared. They did not return...

She took a sharp inhale, drawing in as much of the salty air that she could as she turned back to the others that remained. For a second, she was paralyzed and could not speak, so she eyed the clustering fog. If these other equine had experienced what this world’s fogs were capable of, they knew what their only option was. ”Well. I’m not going to stand around here and wait. If the only direction is the sea…”, her visage tilted, eyes dropping to avoid the others as they grew wide, realizing how crazy she currently sounded. ”Then fuck it.”

She turned back, plunging into the waves as they seemed to rise eagerly in anticipation, as if they wanted to draw her below. And so they did. Despite trying to tread water as the depths grew, she found that her weight fell to the sandy floor below. With a final breath born in consternation, she let the waters sweep over her.

Perhaps the most alarming development came below the surface. When she dared a peek, her eyes did not sting with salt water, but rather she saw quite the pegasus - or rather, the skeleton of a pegasus - and her feline companion. Beneath the waves, skeletal fish swam lazily along the abyssal seabed, while other reef and crag yawned with subterranean caves. With little interest in the fish, Arakses - still wrangling with how insane everything just became - set her sights to the caves and followed the cloudy water path after Azazel and Remiel.