The mare was not left back at the stables, choosing not to keep her safe in the Thistle Kingdom's borders. She did not want to risk losing her mare to some opportunistic bastard in the wilds, but did not like the prospect of having to walk all the way back home with stuff on her back without a horse's easy gait back. Something in her gut told her to keep the mare at home, but she had not explored this part of the world, even as she had trekked through it on the way to this cold, almost lifeless place. There was a hefty bag slung over her shoulders as she carried nothing but cloth and a meal on her back, hoping to find something in the military fort for the rest of the Kingdom to use. Ducky easily trotted her way there, to the fort she had noticed.

Before she came to it though, she smelled an unfamiliar scent on the wind. Ducky froze, sniffling at the air with a nervous uncertainty. Isabella dismounted carefully, tying the mare to the edge of the field as she eyed the body laying on the ground. The scent was tainted by something else, earthy and strange. Ducky fidgeted, pawing at the ground as she shook her head at the scent. With a pat, the woman moved away from her horse, carefully approaching the man with her hands carefully put to her side, where the daggers her once lover had hung. "Hello?" she said tentatively, one bi-colored eye watching the stranger on the ground.

The man jerked and she instantly closed her fingers over her daggers and pulled one out in a panic. Her hackles rose, the hair on the nape of her neck rising as adrenaline began to flood her system in case he proved to be hostile. But, it seemed he was altered, the way his eyes seemed red and his body reeked of a drug she was not familiar with. He rose and jutted out something in his hand and she could smell that familiar unfamiliar smell coming from his hand. The dagger returned to its sheath and she eyed the oddly colored hybrid carefully as she stepped forward. She did not understand the word but she figured it meant something like hello. Or it was the name of the thing in his hand.

She stood a foot away from the man and his offering. Delicate white fingers reached out and took the joint, even though her eyes were carefully planted on him and not the thing he offered. She slowly took it from his hand and glanced at it, a white roll with something brown and earthy sticking out of the ends. "What is this?" she asked, curiosity bubbling in her gut as she looked from the roll to the hybrid sitting in the field. He did not seem a threat, but she was wary outside of home. "Who are you?" she asked, keeping her voice level as her spare hand fell to her side.