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 Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 6:38 pm
> >Guardian of the Greater Herd
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ►► v a l d i e n
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Without warning, Valdien launched into a head-long gallop, his mane and tail streaming like lavender banners behind him. His hooves thudded dully on the soft earth beneath him, the moonlight glinting off of his golden bracers strapped to his hocks. The stallion knew that even though Saisho was new to these lands, he could keep up easily as long as Valdien refrained from using his wings.
At his Chosen's urging, Valdien arched his neck, over-extending his stride to eat away at the ground flying under his hooves. They were headed for Lake Sandar; not too far, perhaps ten miles. There was a rumor whispered that a shady sort had been seen along its banks, and with new arrivals to the Greater Herd each day, Valdien would not take any chances.
Azreth leaned low over his Bonded's neck, flattening his body to the stallion's. He shifted his weight slightly with each step Val took, ensuring that their balance remained absolutely synchronized. The King only looked back once to ensure that Sai and Live would follow; when he was assured of that, he focused his attention once more on the joy of the ride.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chivalry< <will never die.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:00 pm
Live watched Valdien in awe for a moment before Sai nudged him with shoulder. "Oh, right." Live said, snapping out of his trance. In one swift motion he mounted his Bonded with a grin. "Let's show them what we're made of" Live said with a sparkle in his eyes.
Sai took off, smiling in excitement. He flew over the soft earth, hair and jacket tail fluttering in the wind. Running freely like this was one of his favorite things to do. Steadily he gained on Validen. Making it along side him Sai gave the pair a closed eyed smile.
Live doubted that there was a better feeling in all the world than to run like this with Sai. As Sai pulled up beside Valdien Live spoke. "So, where we headed?" Live asked curiously.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:14 pm
> >Guardian of the Greater Herd
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ►► v a l d i e n
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"To Darras Lake," Azreth shouted over the wind. "Been there before?" Azreth tucked his knees a little more securely behind Valdien's wings as the stallion bunched his haunches. The center fork of the river originating at Lake Darras was coming up fast, and Azreth knew Valdien meant to jump it.
Valdien's eyes caught the ribbon of moonlight on the earth that was the river. He increased his pace, breathing out a low snort to warn Sai of the steep bank. Three paces from the bank of the river, Valdien pushed off of the ground with his haunches, flattening his body in the air. He felt the King lay down once more over his back, cutting down on wind resistance. At the peak of Valdien's jump, about a third of the way over the river, the stallion unfurled his wings with a loud snap.
He tightened the muscles in his shoulders and wings, stiffening his back to keep him aloft for a few moments in his glide. In the span of four heartbeats his glide carried him downwards, and Valdien let out a triumphant whinny. They would just make it!
Valdien braced himself as the ground flew up to meet the pair of them, and with a loud thud, the stallion landed, tucking in his hindquarters and locking his forelegs, sliding along the ground, cutting furrows in the turf with his hooves.
Valdien extended his left wing upwards, causing his body to pivot as it slid, and he and the King ended up coming to a graceful halt, facing the river that they had just barely cleared.
Azreth panted heavily, raising an arm to wipe sweat from his forehead. "Didn't think you'd make it that time. Damned showoff."━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chivalry< <will never die.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:52 pm
Live shook his head in response. "No, I haven't" he replied verbally over the rush of wind. Live was then distracted by Sai as he felt his bonded preparing to do something crazy. His eyes darted to the ravine that held a silver moonlight river within. "Oh, boy." Live muttered, flattening himself against Sai and holding on for dear life.
Sai caught Valdien's warning of the steepness of the riverbank ahead. He knew well enough that he couldn't make a straight jump across, but he wasn't about to cross in a boring way. He picked up his speed and galloped right for the edge as his Chosen held on tight. Sai appeared to be trying to attempt a jump he couldn't make. At the last instant Sai kicked off, thrusting himself downward, into the ravine, though still covering about half the width. His hooves clicked on a large rock that rested approximately in the middle of the river. He pushed off from this rock, leaping into the air his hooves collided with the lowest edge of the opposite bank. Not slowing he ran sideways up the wall. Coming to a rock that stuck out the wall he swung his body around and used the rock to launch him in the opposite direction. He soared though the air before landing. Trotting a ways to kill his speed, he came to a stop next to Valdien, smiling.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:10 pm
> >Guardian of the Greater Herd
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ►► v a l d i e n
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Azreth let out a bark of genuine laughter, a wide smile lighting up his features. He clapped in the air above his head, absolutely beaming at Saisho. "Bravo, my young friend, bravo!" The King leaned over, bracing his leg against Val's side to give Saisho a hearty clap on the neck. "And here I thought Val was the only showoff!" The King laughed once more in his baritone, his eyes shining.
Azreth turned to face Live, a grin splitting his face. "Wasn't that a rush? Have the two of you done this kind of thing before?"
Valdien extended a foreleg, sweeping into a low bow. "As he says, brother, most well-executed! I couldn't have done it better myself!" Valdien's ears swiveled back, ensuring that his Chosen's attention was focused solely on Live.
Valdien's blue eyes met Saisho's hazel's, and the stallion spoke in a low undertone, barely audible to any ears save an equine's. "Thank you," his words were filled with so much gratitude that he was sure it was sad. "I have not heard him laugh like that for well over two years. You are a balm to an old soul, my friend. He sorely needed that."━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Chivalry< <will never die.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 8:39 pm
Live took a breath, heart still racing, and sat up straight on Sai's back as Azreth let out a loud laugh.
Sai tossed his head, shaking his hair back into place as The King congratulated him. His eyes sparkled. "Thank you." Sai said cordially, as Azreth gave him a hearty clap on the neck. Sai smiled brightly.
Live turned his green eyes to Azreth, smiling. "Definitively a rush." Live said with a chuckle. Nodding he then replied. "Yeah, we've done that sort of thing a few times before. Sai has a knack for it and I couldn't stop him if I wanted." Live laughed, patting Sai's neck as he did so.
Sai shifted his weight, turning his gaze to Valdien as he bowed, congratulating him as well. "You, did well yourself." Sai responded, sincerely.
Sai listened to Valdien's softly whispered words. His expression softened and his eyes sparkled. It made him happy to know that he had done a great service for his new friends, especially at the current time. In the same, nearly silent, whisper Sai replied. "I'm glad that I was able to prove the King with laughter." His tone soft and sincere. Nothing made Sai happier than to help others, especially friends.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 10:28 pm
►►Azreth
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Valdien nodded shallowly at Sai's words. He shook his head, and at Azreth's urging, set off at an easy trot towards the lake a few miles away.
"Live, what do you know about the Six?" Azreth figured now would be as good a time as any to either fill Live in with what was going on, or have Live alert him to rumors he hadn't heard yet. They still had a good hour or so before they reached Lake Darras.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:00 pm
Sai gave Valdien and trotted alongside him, a spring in his step.
Live noticed that Sai seemed particularly happy, but it didn't bother him, since Sai was just that kind of Azrein. Focusing back on Azreth, he frowned slightly. "Not, much. I've herd rumors of them being responsible for many Azrein deaths not to long ago." He said, a sour note in his tone.
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:43 pm
►► K I N G ___ A Z R E T H ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The King's lip curled into a snarl.
"Sixteen innocent Azrein, brutally murdered by the Six's agents." The King shook is head. "Such a waste." .:: O O C ::. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 12:06 am
Live's eyes glinted with anger. "I don't see the point in such pointless slaughter of the innocent." He said almost venomously, shifting his gaze to the sky and taking a deep calming breath to release his pent up emotion.
Sai gave Live a sideways glace, understanding him. Even though Sai didn't judge anyone, hearing about deaths always left a bitter taste in his mouth. Turning his attention back to the horizon he continued trotting onward.
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 4:09 pm
►► K I N G ___ A Z R E T H ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Valdien ruffled his wings as the two continued onward at an easy trot, his azure eyes constantly scanning the grounds around them for any sign of danger. They weren't too much farther from Sandar Lake; perhaps another fifteen or twenty minutes.
"Nor do I. But I suppose I can see where the Six are coming from. There have been humans known to abuse their bond." Acid dripped from the King's words at his last statement, clearly in disgust for people who would do so. .:: O O C ::. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 4:21 pm
Live turned his green eyes back to Azreth. "I can't say that I see. What comes of killing the unbonded of their kind? Yes, I understand that there are those who abuse the precious bond that has been created, but to kill those who have done nothing makes no sense to me." Live replied calmly, absently stroking Sai's neck.
Sai's hazel eyes seemed to smile at Live's words. It would seem that he had been able to rub off on his chosen than then the boy would ever admit. Looking to Valdien he smiled, with eyes closed, happily. He seemed proud, for some reason.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 3:22 pm
►► K I N G ___ A Z R E T H ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Valdien sighed contentedly; there was nothing better than being on patrol with his Chosen, and with company to boot! The stallion understood the human Live's words, however he himself had to agree with his Chosen. There were always two sides to the same coin.
"Some of them have been grievously wronged Live, and for that, they bear grudges. I cannot myself truly understand their burning hate, however, I can see through their eyes, sometimes. Imagine for a moment. If you and Saisho had been Bonded for oh, say five years. And then one day, you simply abandoned him, without a second thought. And Sai had given up everything, changed himself drastically; bent all of his dreams and desires for the future to include you and your happiness." The King paused, a frown creasing his brows. "No, I would not be surprised if he harbored a grudge against all mankind. And perhaps his anger would be only a twisted desire to save other Azrein from the same fate he had met. Azreth shook his head, his voice grim. "Personally, I do not blame those of the Six for killing off humans that have done such a thing. However, in their case, I believe they have taken it too far." .:: O O C ::. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 7:58 pm
Live listened to what The King had to say respectfully, nodding in agreement, for the most part. "I may not be very open to accepting others, especially those who do horrible things. However I can understand, or at least sympathize with those who have gone through suffering at another's hands. Biased hate that comes from bad relations with rotten apples of a race or species can often lead to hate and violence against the whole." He paused, feeling at rather at ease discussing such things even though he usually didn't. He wondered if this meant he trusted The King. He pushed the idea aside and continued. "So I can see why those Azrein who have been abandoned and hurt by humans wouldn't hesitate to kill humans to protect themselves and others. What I can't understand is why these six would violently slaughter those of their own who have yet to even bond with a human." Live's voice remained fairly level as he spoke, sounding much more intelligent than his gruff appearance made him seem.
Sai continued smiling brightly as he trotted on. This was the first time he had ever heard Live vocalize such feelings and in such an open manner. There was still hope for his mistrustful chosen.
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