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 Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:12 pm
Snow was falling lightly, making everything seem to glow white as Abdiel looked through the clearing. It was beginning to stick to the ground, but there were still patches of uncovered grass and earth that were still begging to be blanketed. Abdiel made his way to the river, lowering his head and taking a long cold drink from it. It was greatly refreshing, even though it was so cold, and after he was finished he raised his head again to look around. He imagined the way everything wold look when it was covered in snow; very beautiful. His winter coat was growing beautifully too. He wasn't sure, but as he thought about it, he thought that winter might be one of his favorite seasons.
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Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:28 pm
A swift breeze tousles the ends of Rahnya’s mane as she trudges through the snow. This year the winter seemed especially chilly as the days wore on. ‘I hate the snow’ , Rahnya thought, ‘Why can’t I be back where its warm; back where my mother’s people are from…’ Sighing to herself, she knew the reason. She wasn’t welcome where her people are from. She was one of them, the Contadora, the storytellers. Drawing her shawl closer to her, she gazed upon the landscape before her. It has been months of wandering far away from her people, where could she be now? Hearing the gurgle of a river, Rahnya let out a defeated snort. ‘Great, now I’m going to have to cross that too.’
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Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 7:42 pm
Abdiel turned his head and perked his ears in the direction of the sound he had just heard. He had heard a a snort, and now he could hear hooves drawing near as they dragged through the blankets of snow covering the ground. He wondered what kind of personality the Soq that was approaching him had. Perhaps they weren't coming his way at all, perhaps just passing by. Maybe they too were coming to the river for a drink? Abdiel waited, his head raised and his ears alert. He breathed in and out, hoping to catch a scent of some kind. His breath came out in visible puffs from his nostrils. He pawed at the ground a little, expectantly, disturbing the snow where he stood.
A breeze caught his attention as he breathed in the scent of the other soq. A mare, he thought, and then he saw her come in to view. She was a tan color, with dark black hair. She wore a red and orange shawl around her, and though it looked warm to Abdiel, he noticed that she seemed to be a bit color and irritated. He let out a little snort of his own, sending a burst of visible breath into the air, and letting her know of his presence by the river. He stopped his pawing at the ground, and now stood very tall and very still. He was in the presence of a lady now, and he wanted to hold a good appearance.
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Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:10 pm
Hearing an echoed snort, Rahnya tripped over her shawl. ‘Who the blazing hell…?!’ Looking up from the ground she focused on the thing making the snort. It seemed to be a handsome black stallion with shokingly blue markings. Getting back up as gracefully as she could, she trotted nearer to the male. Staring at him from a short distance, she noticed something was off. Why wasn’t he moving? Why was he so still? Can snow make Soquili into rocks? ‘Oh no, where am I?’ Rahnya panicked, ‘Will I be like him if I don’t get out of here?!’ Shaking out some wrinkles in her shawl, she told herself to stop being so silly, after all, didn't she hear a snort? Still, she couldn’t help but wonder what happened to him. Looking around the forest she yelled, hoping someone, or something, saw what happened. ‘Hello? Is anyone there?’
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:48 am
The wind tousled Abdiel's ice blue mane a bit, and he shifted his weight slightly. His muscles were beginning to get restless with cold, and he knew it was about time for a run through the snow. But he wanted to talk to this female first. She seemed a little lost and confused. He was looking right at her, wasn't he? He had snorted his existence. But yet, she didn't seem to notice him, the way she called out to someone.
She didn't appear to be from around this area. She seemed too cold and out of place, and a little skittish. He wanted to help her if he could. Damsel in distress? Seemed like it.
He took a step forward and addressed her softly. "I'm right here." He nodded his head a little and then added, "The name's Abdiel. Are you alright? Forgive me, but you seem to be lost."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:01 am
Hearing an answer Rahnya leaped away from the direction it was coming from. Gaining her senses once again, Rahnya turned to look at the male who did, indeed, make the noise. Snorting she gathered herself and tried to stand just as proper as he was. ‘Did you say something? You can’t talk to me, I’m Contadora, don’t you know what happens if you get caught..?’ Letting her anger die down a little, she realized she was no longer in the land of her mother. ‘Who are you? Where in the world is your herd?’ Stepping back again she growled, ‘Are you cursed? Is that why your alone?Because I don’t need any more of your kind around here…’ Taking in her surroundings frightened her a little. ‘What happened to me...’
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:37 am
Yeah, she definitely wasn't from around here. Abdiel had no idea what 'Contadora' meant, and he tried not to laugh at the startle his simple answer had given her. She had taken a defensive posture though, and this was not what Abdiel had been expecting, or what he had intended. He guessed that it made sense though, if she was lost, it was probably better not to trust any old stranger. She was protecting herself, and that was smart of her.
He shook his head and let out a sigh, "Whoa whoa...I'm not cursed," he chuckled at that. Maybe he was cursed? He had no idea. He was always alone, simply because he had not found a herd to be a part of yet. He didn't see this as a problem just yet; after all, being alone meant he was the leader of his own herd, and he liked it that way. Besides, being alone he didn't draw as much attention from hunters that might try to hurt him for his horn.
Despite having told him he couldn't talk to her, she continued to talk to him anyway. He decided he ought to answer her questions. "My name's Abdiel...as I've said, and I don't have a herd." He looked around to see if perhaps he had mistaken in thinking that she was alone, but he had not. "It appears that you don't have one either. Perhaps you are the one who is cursed?" He smiled a sarcastic smile. He didn't much believe in curses, or care much even if she was cursed.
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:06 am
'I’m Contadora, didn’t you hear?’ Rahnya huffed, ‘And if you’re not cursed, why do you have that pointy thing on your head? Looks like a weapon to me.’
Rahnya took a good look at the stallion for the first time. He was handsome, no doubt, but she couldn’t get over the fact that he was alone. Where she was from only the cursed or diseased were cast away from their herd. Some chose to leave, but that was normally a suicide mission. ‘And if you must know, I had to leave my heard. My mother taught me the ways of our people long ago, I know what I am. We cannot live in a heard, we have to wander alone and share our words with others, to pass it on. That’s the way it’s always been.’
Reminded of her ancestory, she grew worried. This ‘Abdiel’ didn’t seem to want to harm her, why should she harm him? ‘You should probably go now, find your heard so you can live a happy life.’
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:24 am
Nothing he said seemed to have any effect. She still seemed to think he was cursed and she was still raving about this 'Contadora'. Apparently this meant she had to spread the word about something. Perhaps about her herd and where she was from. And again, she told him to join his herd, even though he did not have one. He decided he ought to try a new tactic.
"Well I've left my herd as well. To find a new one, a better one." He titled his head to the side and glanced upward to where his horn was. He thought it a bit strange she hadn't heard of a unicorn before. "Besides, I'm a unicorn. We don't usually travel in large herds anyway. There aren't very many of us who survive the hunters." He glanced back at her, now curious to know of her story. "So what is 'Contadora'? You have a story to tell? Let's hear it."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:35 am
‘You.Left.Your.Herd.’ Rahnya stared at him in disbelief. ‘Why the HELL would you do that? I don’t care about hunters; get back to your herd right now! You’re much, much safer with them!!’ Caught up in the fact that someone would willingly leave their heard (was he on a suicide mission?) she backed up into a tree. ‘I sound like my mother’ she thought.
Realizing he actually asked her a question, Rahnya scoffed again. ‘Foreigners. I’m a storyteller. I don’t have one story to tell, I have all stories to tell. Everything has one. You, me, the trees, even the snow. I just know how to find them. Well, my chest does.’ She nodded to a bush witch concealed a battered chest, just big enough to fit in the folds of her shawl.
‘And you can’t be a unicorn, they aren’t real. Everyone knows they are just a story. Is that why you have a horn? To fool people into beliving fairy tales?’
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:54 am
She seemed to be offended by his choice of words. He chuckled again. 'Well this is going well,' He thought. He tossed his head, letting his mane tousle around him. "Well I guess I'm just a rebel." He grinned and added, "And perhaps if you were a unicorn, you would care about the hunters." She backed into a tree and he took a small step forward, without really thinking about it, simply to close their lost distance. He barely seemed to realize that he had done it.
Had she really just called him a foreigner? He laughed again, thinking this probably might have offended him had the occasion been different. Indeed, she was the one who was a foreigner in a strange land, and he made it a point to tell her so. "You're the one who is on my land, remember?" He smiled again, his charming, friendly smile, to let her know he really meant no harm by any of his remarks, no matter how rude they seemed to be to her.
Her story was as interesting to him as a unicorn seemed to be to her. Unbelievable that was. He looked at the chest she nodded to, wondering what was inside of it, and how it could find stories. "Perhaps you should ask your chest about my story then," and smiling that playful smile again he added, "Maybe I am just a fairy tale. If you are a storyteller, then you should know all about those."
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 12:18 pm
Mumbling something about foreigners again, Rahnya shook out her mane. ‘You really don’t know anything about the Contadora do you?’ Sighing she decides it’s better to explain, that way he can tell his other foreigner friends so the next time she runs into one they will get it right. ‘It’s a story meant for you, not me. I can’t tell anything about you from your cloth.’
Staring at his horn she starts to feel a little annoyed. ‘Can’t you just take it off? You’re not fooling me,’ she says as she looks around, ‘and no one is here so you won’t have to worry about getting caught without it.’
Spining in a circle she immediately feels lost. Meekly she whispers, ‘Where are we, anyways?’
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:01 pm
Abdiel just watched her with the same amused expression. Was she for real? Abdiel figured she must be. He just chuckled lightly and shook his head again, deciding to play along. "Well, I'd love to take it off." He lowered his head slightly, peeking up at her out of the corner of his eyes. "Here, why don't you help me? It's a little hard to do it myself, since it's on the top of my head, I can't reach it, you know?" He took a few steps closer to her, smiling at his own little joke. She wouldn't be able to remove it, for it really was part of him. She wouldn't believe him, so he'd just let her see for herself.
"So, you're telling me you've got a story meant for me?" He didn't know what she meant by 'can't tell anything about you from your cloth,' so he didn't comment on that part. She said a lot of strange things. "And we are by the main river that flows through this land. On the other side is a beach. There's a forest to the West and a lake to the East." He said all this with his head lowered, and tilted to the side so that he could watch her face when and if she decided to help him 'remove' his horn.
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:19 am
Rahnya sniffed the air and then shivered. ‘Where did all this white stuff, snow think you call it, come from? I don’t like it, it’s too cold.’ Pulling her shawl closer again she started to think about home.
What she couldn’t give to be back with her herd, soaking up the suns delicious rays and tussling with each other. But she couldn’t go back; she knew she was no longer welcome.
Snapping out of her short daydream she nodded towards her chest. ‘I may have a story for you. It’s not up to me; it’s up to my chest.’
Staring at him oddly, she noticed he lowered his head. Unsure of approaching him, she crawled forward and nit his horn. Backing up a little, she pulled. It didn’t budge for a second. Letting go in case she hurt him, she huffed. ‘I’m still not convinced, how did you get it to stay on so well?’
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Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 8:48 am
Abdiel continued to watch her from the corners of his eyes as she looked around, sniffing the air and shivering. "You don't know what snow is? It comes from the sky. It's just frozen rain." He watched as she pulled her shawl closer to her; she obviously wasn't used to cold weather.
She seemed to pause, as if she was concentrating on something, but then she answered him as she stepped forward to try to remove his horn. He was curious to know if her chest would find a story for him. "Well, if your chest finds a story for me, let me know."
He chuckled softly as she tugged at his horn. He felt the pressure from the pull, but it wasn't hard enough to hurt him. He just laughed and answered her, "Well, it's been there since before I can remember, so I guess whatever my mother used to stick it worked pretty well."
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