Dec, not Nec

Unfortunately for Nec, the peace wouldn't last long.

Dec wasn't looking where they were going, glancing behind them fearfully with one hand covering the place where their eye used to be. They didn't know what had happened - one minute they were in the school with the teacher looming above them and the next they'd found themself on a sandy beach. How they'd gotten here they didn't know, but they did know to run as fast and as far away as they could. This resulted in them smacking straight into Nec and falling back onto the sand. They hastily scooted away from him, visibly trembling.

The kid flinched and immediately scooted further back, managing to get their feet under them again. Their hand was still covering their eye but a trickle of blood was oozing down from their palm. Frantically, they looked around for a weapon though the only things around them were shells and rocks. So they picked up a rock with their other hand, though it was heavy in their palm. "S-Stay away from me!" They didn't want to lose their other eye, unless this strange blue person had more nefarious plans in mind. One could never tell with adults, though it looked like this one had managed to keep his face somehow. How he'd managed that was something they didn't know, unless they'd somehow managed to get from the school to near the forest without noticing?

Dec didn't answer, only clutching the stone tighter when Nec crouched down. At first they thought he might have been gearing up to pounce and rip them to pieces, but as precious moments passed without any sudden movements they went from terrified to...well, confused. Why wasn't he attacking them? Everyone else did, even the ones that they thought had been too small to kill them.

They'd been so, so wrong.

"Why aren't you trying to hurt me?" they blurted out, their good eye narrowed. Maybe he was trying to lull them into a false sense of security? That had to be it, there was no way he actually had good intentions. Never trust anyone bigger than you, that was how Dec had managed to survive this long.

His reply just resulted in them being more confused. Another planet? But how? It didn't look too different from the place they had come from... Well, scratch that. The sky was blue and there was no heavy fog hanging over their head. Even the sun was out. Dec wasn't sure if they'd ever even seen the sun before now, not that they'd lived for very long but still...

A moment passed before they slowly removed their hand from their eye, or lack thereof considering there was nothing there but an empty socket that was sluggishly bleeding as though said eye had been removed not too long ago. Their hand was sticky with the stuff, making Dec grimace slightly and try to wipe it on their grimy oversized sweater. When Nec moved forward though, they moved back. It was clear that they still didn't trust him, but he was able to look at their injury.

Well, one baby step at a time.

"What's a...horse?" Dec asked nervously, wondering if it was some kind of monster. Maybe it had multiple mouths and sharp teeth and acidic saliva to dissolve flesh and even bone... They shivered and tried to shake the image from their mind. Maybe the 'horse' wouldn't look at all terrifying and they were just letting their imagination get away from them. The rats they'd glimpsed in the city weren't bad, after all...

Dec frowned, wondering why it seemed so unusual that they didn't know what a horse was. Animals were rare in the city, and though they'd seen the occasional graffitied animal on the wall and toy animals such as a small wooden yellow thing called a 'duck' the only animals they were really familiar with were rats. They tensed upon Nec mentioning that a horse was a large animal, but relaxed slightly upon learning that they tended to eat plants and not people. That didn't mean they were wholly prepared for Breyze though, flinching back. They took another step back from Breyze, glancing briefly to Nec when he spoke. "Dec," they answered after a moment of hesitation, their good eye moving between Breyze and Nec in case either of them decided to make any sudden movements.

When there were none forthcoming and with their gaze still trained on Nec, Dec hesitantly reached out to Breyze - not quite touching her, but not sure how they were going to be able to get on her back without hurting her somehow. She was big, and they were very small. On the bright side, they definitely didn't weigh much with their practically being skin and bones.

Though they flinched slightly at the feeling of being nuzzled, Dec eventually seemed to accept that she wasn't going to bite their hand off and slowly, cautiously petted her. If it really was okay with her then maybe...? They looked at her back and then at her again, but not seeing any anger in her gaze decided to take the risk as they moved towards her side to climb up onto her back.

Instead of grabbing her mane, they leaned forward to wrap their arms around her neck even though they couldn't quite get their arms all the way around so their grip was shaky at best. Hopefully she didn't suddenly decide to throw them off.