"I think I've had enough personal contact with animals to last me a while."

He shrugs. "I don't think I trust it enough to go up to it." He eyes it a bit suspiciously. "Even if I probably could out-run it."

"Let's keep going, then."

They will rather shortly come across a lake! This one is actually small, unlike the ridiculously huge previous lake.

Does it seem safe to drink?

It's not murky, at least? It's not very clear if it's freshwater or saltwater, though…

Blue sits on a rock near the lake.

Convenient how the lakes always seem to have rocks.

She'll test a little bit.

If she drinks it, she will note it tastes slightly fruity.

It does not, however, seem salty.

Mmm. Not bad. She drinks a little more.

It does not seem to instantly do her any horrible harm.

The lightning pain is still there, in the background.

She keeps the pain locked in one corner of her mind, a reminder of her rage to fuel her power.

"Probably safe to drink," she remarks to Blue.

He nods. "Thanks."

Oops did the pain just disappear wow her head feels so much freer now.

Suspicious. She makes sure to not show any sign of it on her face.

Wow huh. It's so nice with it gone, actually, her head definitely feels more– open?

Wait nope it just came back again. It's also a bit worse. Perhaps she should scream to make this known.

She refuses to scream in pain.

Is she sure?

Yes.

But gritting her teeth is not out of the question.

Blue appears to notice.

He doesn't, however, comment.

How polite of him.

Indeed.

Okay, back under control.

"Is there anything in particular you want to do?" asks Blue, a few minutes after this incident. "I'm just– not sure what I actually can get out of this place and I'm not really very happy with 'live alone in the wilderness' as a goal."

"I'd like to find whoever's behind all this and," horribly torture them for a very very long time "have a nice long chat. But I don't think that's likely to happen."

He raises an eyebrow. The subtext was kinda obvious. "Nor me. Especially since this place seems to be magical, so it might have just cropped up all of its own desire."

"It doesn't have rules, it has whims. To me, that speaks of a guiding intelligence."

"So far it seems to mainly be that it's consistent about how pokeable it is – that is to say, if you poke it you can expect to be in pain, and if you don't, you can expect to have to poke it sometime anyway – but otherwise, yeah, it's– a bit stupid."