[PRP] Passing Shadows (Bile and Vari)

[Cajmera]

 

[Cajmera]

Vari
~~~

It was a cold, windy day in the upper ranges of the mountains. Snow lay thickly in the various cracks and crevices, and formed a thick, unbroken blanket in the few smooth expanses of open space, a testament to the fact that winter had arrived in the Kawani lands with bells on! Though it would be foolish to think that snow in the mountains was limited to wintertime; as any resident of the area would tell you, the snow started in the autumn months and would stay in some form or another until well into the springtime. The visual was strikingly pretty, but it was also a stark reminder of just how unyielding the northern reaches could be.

It was this inhospitable element of the mountains that had lead Vari to make a momentous decision; inspite of having been born and raised in the northern mountains, she had decided that enough was enough. She was sick of spending half her year battling snowstorms, sick of having to dig through ice to find something still fresh and green. She was sick of eating dried plants, sick of being cold, sick of constantly worrying about slipping and falling on the ice...really, she was just sick and tired of the whole thing. She'd long since made up her mind to migrate to warmer climes, but it had taken longer than she'd expected to make up her mind where to GO! After all, she needed to let her hardier friends know where to find her, should they decide to visit her, or even if they ever decided to leave the mountains themselves. She and a couple winged friends had made an aerial tour of the lower reaches, and that had been loads of fun; they had scoped out a forest, a coastal region complete with sandy beaches, a swampy bog area, a wide meadowy expanse; there had been enough choices to make Vari's head spin!

In the end, she had decided that compromise was the most logical. The beach was appealing, and the warm temperatures of both the air and the water had been enough to make her swoon, but the pragmatic part of her knew that it was too much too soon. She wouldn't be able to handle that sort of heat, not as a constant thing, so the beach was out. Likewise, she didn't like the idea of being barred from the sky, so the forest was out, and she hated the idea of living in a place that smelled, which ruled out the swamp. At the end of her research, she had decided that the best place for her was the northern foothills of the meadowlands; it was still a bit hilly, but they actually had FOUR seasons there instead of two, ample access to water, a small number of resident Soquili, and easy access to water sources, the mountains, and even the forest, if she ever felt brave enough to venture that way. Pleased with the results of their explorations, she and her friends had returned home to the mountains for Vari to say her final goodbyes and gather her things before departing.

Well, she hadn't counted on a snowstorm kicking up right when she was planning to leave, dumping another foot or so of snow and lingering in the form of the frigid and continuously blowing winds. She'd thought to fly down to her new home, but it would be suicidal to leave the ground in this wind. SOme might argue it was a bit dumb to leave at all in the circumstances, but for all her general mellowness, Vari could be very stubborn when she set her mind to something. She'd decided to leave for the lowlands, and leave she would...even if it meant walking the whole way.

She really hoped she didn't have to walk the whole way.  

[Cajmera]

Bile
~~~

Cold. Cold and wet. Cold and wet and white. Cold and wet and white and painfully bright, bright and burning like fire against his poor, light sensitive eyes. Bile hated it, the mysterious white substance. It came and went on a regular basis, so it was nothing new to him, but just because he was used to it didn't make it something he liked. The first flakes of a new snowstorm were enough to send the stallion skittering into the depths of his favorite cave, alternately whimpering and hissing his displeasure. It wasn't that he was afraid of snow; as bizarre as the thought was, there WERE things that the terrifying stallion found fearsome. Things like bright light, and worst of all fire, were enough to send him into a full-blown panic. But snow, on its own, was not something he feared. He merely loathed it. Snow made things too bright; it cut into his beloved darkness by no small amount. It was cold to the touch, and he didn't like being cold. And during the daylight hours, snow was downright painful. SInce he spent the majority of his time not only hidden by shadow but completely enveloped in it, on the rare occasions he looked out into the light of day the glare of sun on snow was practically enough to blind him.

No, he didn't like snow.

Though it wasn't all bad, he'd long since discovered. He had noticed over the years that when the white stuff fell, a higher than normal amount of creatures tended to make their way into his rocky little canyon. He wasn't bright enough to realize they were trying to find shelter from the wind and cold; he just knew that animals that normally wouldn't be anywhere near him would practically walk into his jaws when the snow started to fall. Once he made this connection, he started to loathe the snow less, but he considered the easier access to prey merely a trade of sorts, the snow's way to recompense him for the inconvenience and actual pain caused by the brightness of the snow. It was almost comical, really; Bile was hurt far more by the brilliance of the snow than he ever could be by any physical attack.

Today, the snow was being particularly annoying. Though largely unaffected by things like cold or wind, even Bile couldn't help but notice the stinging sensation of the blowing snow. The stinging barely registered, except where the snow hit his eyes; it was the fact that his sense were hampered that truly bothered him. In this wind and snow, he could barely see and barely smell; without those two senses, he was completely isolated. And he did NOT like being isolated. Alone, yes; alone was a good state, a proper state. He liked to be alone, but he liked to be able to look and smell and taste while he was doing it. He liked to be alone but accessible, able to observe what was going on around him and ready to attack if anything interesting stumbled along his way.

No, the snow was NOT his friend today, and he was feeling particularly disgruntled as he lay in the protection of his cave. Snow ruined everything.  

[Cajmera]

As she trudged along, head lowered in the face of the blowing snow, Vari started to second guess the wisdom of her plan. The snow hadn't seemed so bad back in the heights, but it seemed like the further she descended, the worse the weather was getting. She'd known from the get-go that flying was a bad idea, but at this rate walking itself was turning into a terrible plan. If she wasn't so familiar with the perils of the mountains, this could easily become downright dangerous. As any resident of the mountains could tell you, there were all sorts of places where the path dropped away unexpectedly, or the trail literally ended.

Thinking about those dangers, Vari felt a completely non-cold related shiver run down her spine. She was usually a steady mare; not overflowing with courage or ambition, but steady and committed once she made up her mind. She wasn't normally in the habit of second-guessing herself. But she also didn't usually find herself in near-zero visibility, fighting to stay upright and on track in a blinding snow storm. Yes, the more she thought about it, the more she was starting to reconsider.

At least she had options for getting out of the snow, she thought with thinly veiled relief. The area she was currently walking through was one of the few mountainous plateaus in the region, with almost nothing in the way of shelter. But she could see the blurry outline of rocks up ahead, most likely another one of those numerous boulder fields that dotted the lower regions of the peaks. She'd have to be careful there; some of those rocks might very well be unstable, and she'd be in a worse pickle if she were trapped by giant rocks. But given the increasingly high odds of blowing away in the wind, she was going to take her chances. With a new sense of determination, she made her way to the rock field in as straight a line as she could muster.

~~~

It took longer than she'd originally anticipated, but eventually Vari made it to the relatively wind-free area among the rocks. It was still cold and still windy; there was an eerie moaning sound that wafted through the pathways as the wind ran over the various gaps and holes that broke up the rock field. It was creepy, but she'd heard enough wind noises in her time flying to know when she didn't need to be scared. No, she was safe here, and she wasn't going to let a little howling wind freak her out. Still, she once again found herself shivering; perhaps the further down she went into the boulder field, the more protected she'd be. Besides, it looked like there were even taller rock formations up ahead!  

[Cajmera]

Bile
~~~

Though it was beautifully dark and cool in the shelter of his cave, Bile was not the least bit soothed. He hated being penned in like this, forced to stay in one place lest he be blinded by that horrible swirling whiteness. He was glad to have his cave, of course, and enjoyed the protection it offered from the light of day during the brightest hours, but he knew, knew that the time for resting was passing rapidly. The whiteness was becoming less white and more gray; that meant that the hated sun was going down, and the entire world was giving way to Bile's beloved darkness. Yet from the look of things, he was going to be stuck here, in this one tiny space, alone and unamused, for the duration of the night.

It was too much. Snarling, Bile lashed out at the snow as it fell just beyond the mouth of his cave. He didn't really expect to contact anything, but at the same time he didn't NOT expect to contact anything. Snow continued to be a mystery to Bile, something to loathe and fume at while failing completely to understand what it was, why it fell, or what purpose it served beyond agitating him.

The darn stuff didn't even give the satisfaction of contact. Yet again, his snapping jaws went right through the falling snow, leaving nothing but a mild sensation of dampness in his mouth. It was utterly disgusting, and irritating to boot. Once again, Bile gave voice to his displeasure; this time, though, it was no mere snarl, but an echoing bellow of anger that rolled through the cave and beyond.