After losing everyone he’d loved, and fleeing everything he’d ever known, Tahir Ara hadn’t held much hoe for anything ever feeling like home again. His parent’s deaths –before their time- and the destruction of his once-proud herd preyed on his mind. Skinwalkers were the cause of this, like so many other evils done by their kind, and while he longed to seek them out and see justice done he had not the strength nor the training. So he fled, letting his strides stretch long and pouring his strength in going away, away, away. But sooner or later the running had to end, due to exhaustion or a flagging spirit or the fact that one had literally run out of room to run.
So he stopped, finding himself in an entirely different kind of mess. The kind that occurs when a complete stranger sets your world on its ear by declaring herself your new best friend. The same friend that reminds you of your relatives just enough to hurt, but she makes you laugh so loud you can’t even argue with it. Alderfly was like that, bossy and unwavering and sarcastic and stubborn. And he loved her like a sister even as he fought to escape her machinations, because she had a reckless streak a mile wide due to living a sheltered life. Now she was out on her own with something to prove (a lot to prove, it seemed to Tahir) and she’d decided he was the perfect partner in crime.
Well, he would be if he’d just “loosen up a little bit” apparently. Her words, naturally, though he wasn’t exactly sure what she meant by them. So he didn’t want to go poke fun at a few kalona that apparently swore off harming her family? That didn’t make him not fun, it just made him not insane. It was a good thing, even if she refused to agree with him.
“Crazy thing.” He grumbled, pacing along in the woods and trying to affect an air of annoyance. It failed in spectacular fashion, laughter making his pink eyes bright as he trotted along on light hooves. “Even without her around she manages to be amusing… I imagine she’ll laugh herself silly the next time I see her and tell her so.”
With a soft laugh the dappled stallion shook his head again, pastel horn catching the light as he wove his way through the forest. There was a meadow ahead he knew of with the finest wild honeysuckle and a sweet spring to drink from, so without hesitation he altered his course there. It had always been a peaceful, idyllic place, and he found himself wanting the calm comfort of sun and sweet flowers since he couldn’t have his impish best friend along for the journey.
Word Count: 466
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