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 Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 7:09 pm
 Soren. Dieter had left Soren behind somewhere, momentarily gone their separate ways. Like a ghost he had drifted away, making for the shadows, hiding almost completely in them save for his white back legs and the tip of his pelt's tail. Ghostly white legs like his mother. Cut off at the knee as if the curse was trying to claim him, too. At least Soren's hooves were not pale as the moonlight. They were darker, striped like father's. It didn't look quite like their ancestors were trying to claim him.
Of course, that wasn't true. At least where his body was concerned. Whether or not they wanted to claim his soul, he had no idea. He never stayed around long enough to find out nor cared to. From what he knew of the shrine it was very likely the ancestors would want him as a sacrifice to push the darkness further back. But there was no pushing it back. It retaliated. Harder.
There was only one way to rid the world of the darkness. He wasn't the Star who was going to do it.
Raising his nose to the sky, Dieter breathed in the smells of the world around him. The sun was low in the sky, low enough to cast a few darker shadows than it previously had been. The thick clouds dotting the sky helped. It looked like it would rain later tonight. That would be fine. Rain would wash away the blood.
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Posted: Sun Nov 03, 2013 7:44 pm
 Late afternoon, with the sinking sun only visible in between puffs of angry charcoal clouds. The effect was eerie--dark, ominous, foreboding, a sign that the world had turned towards winter and there would be no turning back now. Where the sun shone, it was a sullen orange, casting the world in sharp shadows like the contrast in a children's tale. There was a smell that promised of rain, too, and not a gentle sprinkling, no--a powerful, vengeful downpour. Kichiro made note to find someplace to shelter tonight where he could keep his wings dry.
Kichiro had been wandering all his life. He had a few vague memories of a family, people who loved him, but then he'd gone out wandering alone, and ever since then, he'd been unable to find them. For all he knew, they were all dead, or they'd forgotten about him. In the former case, well, that was that, perhaps he'd gotten lucky by wandering away; in the latter case, too bad. The lyra wanted to find his family. And find them he would, someday. But without a lead, he was doomed to wander around aimlessly. No where to goal, just a vague goal in mind. Sometimes it made him chafe; sometimes, he just enjoyed the sensation of being alone.
Like right now. His nose was in the air, scenting the wind that was now picking up. There was the smell of decay, of falling leaves and rotting trees. There was the smell of mushrooms rising to fruit, of nuts stored in the trees and in the ground. There was the smell of a wolf. And at that, the lyra hesitated; wolves were a bad sign. But there was only one wolf, so far as he could tell, and there was also intermingled with it the smell of a star. Curiosity, as ever, got the better of him--that's how he'd gotten into this mess in the first case, if his memory served him correctly--and he found himself wandering deeper and deeper into the woods, peering into deepening shadows and sniffing at the air again and again.
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Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 11:44 am
Dieter was downwind to the Lyra hunting him. Or he would have found the situation very ironic and amusing. As it were, he remained oblivious to the fact he wasn't completely alone as he shuffled through the forest, nose a few inches closer to the ground than a Star's nose tended to be. As a wolf he had no problem keeping it on the ground. As a Star, that felt strange. Unnatural. Even a wolf-pelted one wasn't meant to keep their nose just a hair's width from the dirt and leaves at his feet.
He guessed he wasn't going totally insane. At least not yet. Unlike his sister, his mind was still his mind and not the mind of the wolf on his back. Perhaps having been born this way eliminated his need to have a resistance against the wolf side of his brain. The wolf was always there.
The wind shifted, blowing towards him for a few seconds before going back against him. In that short amount of time his own nose was finally able to register there was a Star behind him. Dieter stopped, turning his head back the way he had come, calm reddish brown eyes searching the darkness for his companion. The smell wasn't Soren. Nor was it remotely like his kin. No one from the shrine was following him. Far as he knew, mother never birthed any new siblings who were now old enough to follow him. His younger sisters and brother had gone on their own ways. Any younger than them would still be foals, running scared from the shadows that suddenly would sprout arms in the shrine. In most family's he would be feeling worry for those siblings. For Dieter, he did not. He barely spoke to the siblings he had, minus Nyomi. She always seemed to find him when he visited. The pelt calling the pelted alike, he supposed.
He waited until the sounds of pursuit had reached a good distance before letting his voice carry over the space.
"Who is it that has the courage to follow me?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 10:47 am
The wolf was still close enough to smell, but the rising storm was playing tricks on the wind. The rustling of bare twigs above heralded the shift of the wind, ruffling Kichiro's pinions before once again harassing his forelock. He hesitated for a moment. The wolf would now have a full nose of Kichiro's scent, there was no doubt about that. But, on the other hand, he had already been walking towards danger. There was no reason to stop. At least, none that couldn't have already applied to the situation. Rain would come soon, and he was in the forest. As much shelter as a tree could provide, it also provided big, fat raindrops collected on the distal branches. Unpleasant. Or rather, pleasant only in short amounts or strange whim.
The other star, so far as he could tell, had stopped. And star it was indeed--as he got closer, he could still smell the wolf, but something about its musty scent explained that as strong as it was, it was not there. Kichiro had heard of alcors, those stars that could take the form of other creatures--doubtless this was a wolf alcor on a late evening stroll.
He was still out of sight when a voice called out to him. A stallion's, of course, asking his name. It sounded like a challenge. Kichiro was up for challenges. "I am Kichiro, a wanderer." He didn't try to sound as grandiose as the other. He simply wasn't, and to pretend otherwise would be useless. "What courage do I need?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 5:28 pm
Dieter watched the shadow emerge into a living being with mild interest. He cared not what others might want out this way, but he couldn't help wondering if every stranger had been as far in as he had been not too long ago. By the calmness of this one, he guessed not. For who could walk away from the Kuze shrine without feeling something, be it fear or pity?
Or perhaps it was he had been invited? It was the perfect point in time for Mother to have conceived, again, if she hadn't yet given birth. The older mare was getting on in years, yet now she proved fertile. When the shrine was full of life she had only had two children. Both had died, killed by shrine members. One for a ritual, one out of anger. Perhaps this was a side effect of the curse. Or, perhaps, some higher being wanted the shrine back and was using Kyouka's children to do it. If the children proved as fertile as the mother, Dieter would begin to wonder. For now, it seemed none had much interest in other Stars. At least not the ones he was aware of. There were four brothers left unaccounted for.
"Much when walking the forest at night. Packs of predators have been known to take down a single, large grazer." The black stallion's voice was emotionless, soft for a male. As if it wasn't accustomed to being used. He assumed nothing about the other's knowledge regarding the pelt on his back. Not that Dieter was trying to intimidate or scare the other stallion. He just simply didn't care either way if he was oblivious or thought him one of many 'wolves' in the area. "Though I suppose Stars have nothing to fear. Predators around here are used to deer."
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