|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 2:01 pm
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jul 05, 2015 2:25 pm
For a stallion on the run, a full night's rest (even fueled by exhaustion) was a luxury. And pursued or not, he had certainly felt hunted, so it was a rare one indeed. As such, the grey half-Kirin stallion known as Tahir Ara had left all memories of his homeland in the dust. All the bloodsoaked lands once filled with his kindred were a memory, and one he was eager to distance himself from.
Having stopped early the previous evening after a long day of travel, Tahir had finally felt far enough away from it all that he could sleep. Stopping at sunset, he'd had to admit that a comfortable nest in a quiet meadow was the height of luxury. As the sun sank, Tahir had eaten and drunk his fill and then slept through the night without fear. The monsters of his homeland were far behind him now, and he was look forward to finding a new place to settle. Maybe even a herd to call home.
"Then again, maybe not." He mused as he stretched, climbing to his feet with a low rumble. "More friends and loved ones to lose, in the long run."
The next moment he pushed all thoughts out of his head, splaying his legs wide and shaking himself from nose to tail like a colt fresh out of the river. Broken blades of grass and twigs freed themselves from his coat and mane, flying in all directions. Straightening, he gave an idle flick of his tail and glanced around, attempting to summon his thoughts from where they had scattered.
Truth be told, exhaustion still hung on his frame like an invisible weight. Refusing to bow beneath it, Tahir nevertheless felt like he could sleep the day away, easily... But he didn't quite want to. Not yet. Maybe after there were a few more hundred strides between him and his past, he'd lounge the day away. Until then, his past was still too close, the horrors too real. At any moment, he felt like he'd turn his had and see the whisping shadow of a ghost... A relic of the old herd. An adult of the band, a lost soul, wandering, angered he had not avenged them... A filly crying, wondering why her uncle could not protect her.
Tahir shook himself again, trying to ignore the ghosts and the shadows and the half-remembered nightmares. They hadn't been able to press on him, as exhausted as he was, he'd merely crashed into the deep waters of sleep and stayed there until bolting to wakefulness. Now that he was awake, it almost seemed like he'd see them out of the corner of his eye at any moment. Shades of gray and white, as they had been in life, but spattered in spectral red. The stuff of nightmares. The reality he'd left behind.
"Don't think about it now." He admonished himself. "Just, one stride and then another... Forget about the rest."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:55 pm
Azami had left the Easterland Mountains in her wake weeks ago and with them that awful duo that she had encountered there. She could admit that her decision to venture into the mountains had been rash to begin with and she had only made matters worse by rushing into an encounter with two obvious scoundrels. The entire trip down the mountain slopes and away from the foothills she had slept with one eye open. It was foolish but she almost expected the two to make a reappearance and make good on their threat. Of course they never had and Azami had lost sleep over nothing at all.
One good thing had come from her flight from the mountains; she’d had plenty of time to think over exactly where she had gone wrong. Initially Azami had traveled up the peaks to find spirits since the area would have been a likely place to find them. That hadn’t played out, she hadn’t seen a single spirit which wasn’t exactly unusual for the family failure but it had still been disheartening at the time. Now she was beginning to think that she had just gone about the entire trip completely backwards.
It wasn’t the fault of the place or the dragon that she hadn’t succeeded. It was because she herself lacked any sort of real training. She’d tried to learn what she could from her family but they had always been vague about their methods and Azami had never managed to pick any of it up. What she needed, aside from possibly a body guard to keep her safe in her travels, was a proper tutor. She needed a person who could give her accurate and in depth explanations for what she was meant to be doing. Once she had the right instruction Azami was certain that she would finally manage to see and commune with her very first spirit. She could make her family proud of her. All of her ambitions to be a great spirit medium was blinding her to one simple truth. No one in her family had the talent that she was trying so desperately to develop.
Having a direction to follow had made traveling through the low lands easier. She went here and there but everywhere she had gone she’d been inquiring about potential mentors. So far she’d had no luck but each area she crossed off was one less place she needed to check. The search had brought her into a surprisingly vacant meadow, the only soul that Azami could see was a stallion as grey as a winter snow cloud. She was pleased to note that he shared at least half of his heritage with her, she could tell just from one glance at his tail. She immediately felt a sense of fondness for him and she hadn’t even greeted him yet.
“Hello!” She called too far away to hear the stallion’s words to himself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 6:03 pm
Waking after his near-dead sleep, the half-kirin stallion swayed to his hooves and tried to shake off the haze of his nightmares. Memories of the foals that had called him Uncle... The mare that was his beautiful little sister and the brave stallion that had been his brother. How much he loved his parents, and his friends... All of them were gone, and the image of their deaths remained. 'Nightmares that I wish weren't true, for all that I know they are...'
Shaking the melancholy off, Tahi ate and drank until his appetite was sated and then considered his surroundings. The grass beneath his hooves was sweet and scattered with wildflowers, the trees were tall and shading, some draped in moss and others in vines. A setting that could have been in his homeland, though the flowers and trees were all very different than what he was used to. Enough of a difference that it was comforting, rather than salt in the wound.
Standing in the meadow, Tahir Ara wondered if he would ever again be at home in the forest. After seeing what remained of his herd, slain in the glades and woods they had always felt so safe in, he rather doubted it. It almost made him want to turn around, to find a cool and remote mountain peek to call home. The mountains were an unexpected treat on his trip, the paths narrow and twisting up and down the unforgiving stone faces.
In some places snow even clung to the peaks, the frigid bite invigorating. With a Kirin's clever hooves he traversed the paths without much issue, his attention firmly focused on the task at hand. He had had no wish to step on loose rock and send himself tumbling down the cliffs. And the thin air made his head spin in ways that were not exactly helpful, though it did help to keep him from thinking of what he wished to forget.
"Maybe I should go back to the peaks..." He wondered with a quiet murmur. "Or at least go forward, seeking more distant peaks to call home."
That at least would be better, he had no wish to go back, no desire to be closer to the path to his homeland than he must be. With effort, Tahir Ara shook off his meandering thoughts of the mountains and the faint shadow of the lands he had left behind. A sudden burst of sound had him spinning to face the new arrival, his eyes gone wide as he considered the mare before him.
Her mane was all black silk, wound and twisted up over her head. Her wings as bright as a summer sun, red as the scales he could see tracing down her back and legs. Otherwise she was white like moonbeams, her greeting cool and sweet.
He was, surprised to say the least. "Hello. Forgive me if I have trespassed upon your homeland or the land of your herd. I am a wanderer, and very far from home indeed. I am afraid I know very little of the borders here."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
