This was supposed to be a gag. A joke. A wild goose chase, as some say. March 7th had read about merpeople having lived on Jarilo-IV weeks ago, and thought that the ever-epic Trailblazer should hunt to take a photo of one. Of course, March's detail about reading about said merpeople in a mythological creatures book was left out, to let the wild goose chase run its course, but it was all in good fun. Eventually, Stelle would give up and return to the Astral Express.

With camera in hand and determination in heart, Stelle's boots meet and crunch the snow over and over toward a frozen lake she'd been told to go to. Her mission was to take a photo of one, and to not rummage through any bins on the way. To the lake. The ice lake, the one that merpeople are rumoured to be underneath. She thinks, and with each step, the whirling snow puts a deeper and deeper dent into her confidence and eagerness. The way back is closer than the way there, and it's already so cold, but she agreed to get this photo.

After a begrudgingly long hike, one too long and too cold to even consider doing again under any circumstances, the ice sheet comes into view, and it dawns onto her. Why would anything be under a sheet of ice? How stupid. Stelle had come all this way, and to be met with her own idiocy. Slumping down against the trunk of a tree to catch her breath and regain her thoughts, a soft buzzing is prominent amongst the flying snow. A Scarab's wings, to be specific.

Of course, naturally, it spooks her. Stelle stands up, turning around and clumsily stumbling backward. Onto the ice. The thin ice over a lake of freezing water. The ice that would not support the weight of a person. Of course, it crumbles and she falls. Into the cold water she plunges, but she'd not sinking. A pair of hands are holding her up. Yours. And they're scaley ones. Mer...person. It wasn't myth. You swim her up to the surface, setting her onto the ground beside the freezing water. Stelle is in awe. You're real. "You... exist." She gapes.