No one in their right mind would have risked stepping onto the bridge. Did that mean, then, that Hayai wasn't one of the sane ones? Perhaps. Or perhaps she felt that she had nothing to fear. She was young, skilled, agile....There was no way that she--let alone any other Iga warrior--would let herself succumb to this frigid place. She'd told herself this upon finding it. It went on for as long as her little eyes could see, stretching off into a place far too distant for her to make out from the shoreline, practically challenging her to come take a look. And who would she be to turn down a challenge?

But confidence didn't add enough height or bulk to her frame to help her brace against the roaring wind. Not even a mile into it, Hayai was forced to hug the ground. Claws dug desperately at rock-hard ice, and her belly, its fur too frozen to dampen at any rate that would meld it to the equally frozen ground, brushed roughly against the bridge's surface as she crawled. Reach by reach of her forelimbs she moved, trying to maintain as low a profile as she could to help her escape getting caught in a gust of air. At her regular height, she'd be carried off like a leaf on a breeze, but down here, at least, she hoped to make herself more steady.

"

Living life without any missions or responsibilities beyond keeping herself alive had been somewhat interesting for a while, but the koi had grown bored rather quickly. There wasn’t much to keep her entertained, so when she had found the bridge and seen the challenge it posed, she hadn’t hesitated in her decision to go exploring. She was curious about what might lay beyond, if anything at all, but even if it was just an excess expanse of ice, or a bridge that simply faded away into the open ocean on the other end, at the very least it would give her something to do.

She had stepped out carefully, and while she was confident in her ability to navigate it, she knew there was a danger involved in it. While the ice felt sturdy enough beneath her paws, the ground was slick, and the wind blew with a vengeful force, cold and wet and stinging. Her claw dug into the ground, her body crouched, as she crept along at a snail's pace. She didn’t expect many would be foolish enough to venture out here, but it wasn’t long before she spotted another. A tiny thing, barely a spec that might have gone completely unnoticed if the path were wider. The other woman was pale, but as Akari drew near, she could see familiar colors and patterns splashed across the other’s pelt. Another koi. A grin split her mouth, despite the unpleasant conditions, she was excited to see another Iga warrior that was not only in this new land, but also taking on the ice bridge. "Hello, old friend!" She called out over the wind, though the woman she saw wasn’t exactly someone she’d known well, any koi in these lands would be considered a friend to her.

"Speech."