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 Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 2:49 pm
His wings folded securely around the wounded wolf, Zaphiro ran on nible hooves through the trees, his focus on the sea green tail that twitched and whipped about before his eyes. At the mare's comment, though, he found himself sighing in relief; all this running and weaving through trees was something that he simply wasn't used to, and a break would be appreciated...
Well, that was his original thought. As he slowed to a stop at the bramble hedge, he was just able to witness T'cora vanishing into what seemed an unpenetrable wall of thorns. "Oh dear..." Sinking down onto his stomach, the larger stallion eyed the tunnel with distaste. "This...could be painful. My apologies for any discomfort you experience, friend Wolf." With that, he lowered his head and squirmed in after her, hoping to avoid as many of the brambles as possible. But on the bright side...hopefully it would be safe here.
The crawl might not have been that long, but it felt like an eternity before he was rising to his feet in the...well, space seemed awfully kind for the restricted clearing they were now standing in; he'd have to keep a careful watch on his wings, feet, tail, and head, or things could get even more snug! Which of course made him realize that there was almost no place he could let down the wolf...
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2006 3:05 pm
T'Cora could clearly see they needed more room. She heaved a sigh and eyed the bramble hedge thoughtfully. Carefully she inserted her horn midway up, ignoring the scratching sound of the barbs scraping her twisting appendage. Standing close, she closed her eyes. She spoke again to the forst, and pleaded with it to provide for them the space her four-pawed friend desperately needed. She could senes him waking now, but the bolts of pain he unconciously sent told her how badly he was injured. He needed healing, and he needed it now. And so the thorns must retreat.
Eyes closed, her face serene, despite her intense need and concentration, she began to lean against the brambles. She could not see it, with her eyes closed, but the wall of twisting barbed vines leaned with her, away from the secluded hiding spot. She leaned further, one cloven hoof moving forward in a single step. A few steady breaths later, another step. However, the toll was beginning to tell, and the thorns screeched on her horn as she leaned forward again, but the hedge did not move. A single p***k at the base of her horn, right where it was sorest, brought her out of her semi-trance. She stood in a new space, just enough to hold her slender body and leave room for the wolf.
With a sigh that was half gasp, she knelt down, lowering her tired body to the ground. She looked up and nodded to the blue stalion that it was safe to deposti the now aware wolf in between them. She would need a few breaths to regain her calm so that she could assist in the wolf's natural healing. She thanked the ocean's depths for the close bond they shared. It would make it easier for her to work with him to stop that bleeding and seal the wound.
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Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:05 am
Eyes narrowed slightly in surprise, Zaphiro stood motionless as T'Cora performed her strange ritual with the brambles. If he hadn't been there himself, he sincerely doubted that he would believe what she had managed to do...but he was seeing the brambles shrink back right in front of his eyes. Simply amazing, actually...he had heard that the unicorns posessed special powers and a strong bond with the natural world, but man!
As the mare sank to the ground, he half stepped forward, unsure if she was intentionally sttling down or falling; but having managed to assure himself that it was the former, he merely nodded his head in acquiesence of her unspoken request. Once again sinking to his knees, the blue stallion gently opened his wings and slid the still wolf onto the ground beside her. He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen...but whatever it was, it would no doubt be something worth witnessing.
In the meantime, though, he woul try to give them both space...or at least as much space as he could. Glancing around the small glade, he was able to take all of two and a half steps off to the side before he would become impaled on the thorns; hopefully that would be enough.
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Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:42 am
She winced as the wolf's body connected with the ground. However gently the stallion had done it, she knew from the yelp in her mind that it had hurt. Taking another deep, steadying breath, she edged herself closer to him and then bent her neck to touch him with her muzzle. She inhaled his familiar scent and the smell of blood. The hide along her flanks shuddered, but she began to nuzzle him, running her sensiteve nose along his side, down his legs, along his belly, under his chin, across his ears. It wasn't merely an exploration of his injuries, but clearly was an action of tenderest affection. Her breath blrew last on his matted fur at his shoulder.
With a soft rumble, she tucked her chin and laid her horn against the back of his neck, close to the shoulder wound. With one last deep breath in, she closed her eyes and held her breath. Mentally she began willing her own life force into her dear companion. Unbeknownst to her, her pale white horn began to slow with a rich yellow light, reminding one of golden sunshine on a perfect summer day. Soon the light began to trickle off her horn and spread across the white wolf's body. It flared brightest around the ugly red stain on his shoulder, but flowed to all parts of him. Soon the entire canine glowed with the warm light, and a palapble heat radiated from him. They sat like that for a short time before the glow faded from both horn and wolf, leaving his shoulder whole, though still blood soaked. It was only then that she exhaled.
Mystre would have yelped when he slid to the ground, if he could have. His jaws gaped with his silent cry, and then stayed open as he panted, eyelids fluttering. Oh, how it hurt! And then he felt her, there with him. He clung to her mentally, using her as an anchor to stay focused. Then warmth flooded through him, almost painful at first, making him pant harder. But after the first wash of searing heat, it settled to a warm glow that spread to every part of his body. It swallowed him in it's comforting embrace like ocean waters on a sunny summer day. With a silent sigh, he relaxed finally, his body going limp, eyes growing still beneath closed lids. With a last mental caress of his friend, he slid into blissfully painless sleep.
Wearily she raised her head, her horn feeling strange and numb. She gave the stallion a defocused but apologetic smile. "He's sleeping, and will live." With a heavy sigh, she rested her head on the ground, halfway around the wolf and pointed in the direction of the stlalion. "I am sorry that we had to meet this way, but I thank you for rescuing us." She raised her head again, a faint twinkle of amusment just barely visible in her aqua eyes. "For that I owe you at least my name. I am T'Cora, and my injured friend is Mystre. May I ask who has become our savior?" She smiled more warmly this time, and that smile alone seemed to give her more strength as she awaited his reply.
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Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 10:08 am
While T'cora had worked her magic on the injured wolf, Zaphiro had stood quietly watching, unwilling to make so much as the tiniest shift in his stance lest the tiny noise somehow disturb the healing process. Even so, once he began to truly take note of all that was going on it was doubtful that he would have been able to move, or even be aware of said movement.
The sight was truly amazing, like something out of folklore. The soft light that radiated from her horn bathed the whole glade in light, and he could feel the warmth almost all the way to his sould. He'd never seen a unicorn in action before, and somehow, he knew that he'd never forget it.
The spell of the moment broke the moment thatshe raise her head and looked at him; suddenly he was no longer observing a tableau, but was once again a part of what was going on. Inclining his head as she spoke, it suddenly snapped back up as she introduced herself and the realization that he had gone all this time without identifying himself struck home. Good grief, what a breach in etiquette!
Stepping back slightly with one hoof, he gave both mare and wolf a proper bow. "I'm relieved to know that your canine friend is going to be alright, and there are no thanks required." Raising his head, Zaphiro gave T'Cora a smile that was both warm and apologetic; to think he'd gone this long without introducing himself! "There was no way I could simply ignore a plight as grievious as yours, and the pleasure was all mine in aiding you. I honestly regret the circumstances and your friend's injury, but the pleasure is all mine in meeting you, T'Cora. My name is Zaphiro."
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 5:53 pm
T'Cora laid her chin wearily on the wolf's flank, quietly reveling in his steady breath. She tipped her head to look at the stallion sideways, her curls rather damp and wilted, falling across her face.
"Well met, Zaphiro. What blessedly brought you to the area, so that you might rescue us?" She supressed a shudder at the memory of the pale men's angry faces, hungry for something from her that she didn't understand, as well as the dead eyes of the horses upon which they had ridden viciously. It was her dearest wish to never see those cruel creatures ever again.
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:12 pm
Crossing one foreleg back over the other, Zaphiro tilted his head back as he answered; the tenseness in his body was still visible but was slightly lessening with the passage of time. The whole episode had left a bitter taste in his mouth; violence among Soquilis was never something that could be looked on with pleasure. But for now, they needed to move on.
He had to think for a moment to come up with an answer to her question, because really, he didn't have one. After casting around in his mind for a few long moments, he finally decided to go with the basics. "Well, to be completely honest I'm sort of on a little expedition. When you spend virtually your entire life in one place, the urge to see what else is out there is bound to catch up with you."
As he spoke, the stallion carefully strode up to the mare and wolf, looking down curiously at where Mystre had been injured. Remarkably, there was no wound at all! He shook his head in amazement at the sight, then looked at T'Cora and gave her a slightly sheepish smile. "Forgive my interest; I've never witnessed such an extraordinary event before. Your abilities are truly something."
Raising his head, he glanced around at the expanded bramble circle, then over at the crawl-tunnel they'd entered through. It was nice to actually have a little bit of room...and hopefully their enemies wouldn't discover this place. Somehow, he doubted that they had the necessary talents...which meant that maybe they could breath easier. Still, that reminded him...
"Who were those assailants of yours, anyway? I've never seen men or Soquili of that sort before in my life."
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:26 pm
Astonishingly, when faced with his clear awe of what she had done, T'Cora blushed a deep pink, visible even through her swirling colors. She averted her eyes and tucked her chin. "Thank you," she said softly. "He means a lot to me, and I would give my life in order to let him live." The shift of focus from her abilities to her friend helped her to ease the sudden pressure inside her chest. She was extremely aware of the closeness of this strange soquili and it dawned on her how handsome he was.
She blinked fast, battling with her thoughts. What was she doing? He was just a kind stranger, that was all. She cast a glance at him, suddenly concerned. She hoped he didn't think that she felt this bound him to her somehow. She would not bind anything as beautiful and free as a winged one of her kind. She tried to focus on what he was saying.
"I don't know who they were. We just happened upon them in the forest." She cast her mind back to how this began. "I had thought it was a herd running from danger at first, and waited to see if there was anything I could do to help." She took a deep breath at the memory. "Shortly I found out how wrong I was."
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Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 6:44 pm
Close to T'Cora as he was, her blush was extremely obvious to Zaphiro and his mouth turned up in a slight smile. The pink was such an interesting hue, thrown into the blue-green of her face, that it really stood out and made her face look-
Wait a minute, blushing? Instantly he was aware of just how close he was and promptly flushed himself, the blue of his face turning deeper and purplish as a result. "Er, I'm sorry about that; I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Hastily he stepped back a step, then fluffed his wings and shifted his feet for a few moments to try and get his bearings back. Perfect, he'd just met a mare and was already making her feel ill at ease! Way to go, Zaphiro. Best to just move on.
Fixing his gaze on the thorns, Mystre, his hooves, and anything else that he could fixate on, he was able to settle himself enough to be thoroughly paying attention to her comments on the assailants. However, instead of making things clearer, he was now even more confused. "Strange...that makes no sense at all to me. How could there be humans of that type in this land with no warning? And their Soquili..." A slight shudder ran through his body as he remembered the dead, dull eyes of the mounts; like they had no will of their own, or even a soul. "Very troubling, very troubling indeed..."
His gaze downward and intense, Zaphiro had unconsciously begun to pace as he considered the situation. A large herd of Soquilis controlled by vicious and apparently homicidal humans who controlled sticks of fire and seemed to desire capture of T'Cora...was it just her, unicorns in general, or just more Soquili? And why here? And why did they use those fire sticks? "None of this makes sense."
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Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 6:22 pm
T'Cora spoke softly, so as not to disturb the wolf. "Evil rarely makes sense. It has it's own demented point of view, and no logic nor common sense will change it." She heaved a deep sigh and watched him pace a while longer before gntly huffing at him. "You should rest. We are safe while we are here, I promise you that. Morning will come and that is time enough to deal with what to do about all this."
She lifted her head and nuzzled the wolf closely again, checking his injuries and making sure there were none she had missed. Night was falling, and the evening creatures were stirring. Crickeets began to sing, and there was rustling in the bramble hedge from a family of raccoons that lived in a burrow, safe beneath the thorns. Not far away, an ow'ls hoot soared eerily from one tree to another, it's silent wings invisible against the gathering night.
Mystre stirred beneath her minstrations, his eyes dragging open to gleam briefly in the dark. His tail thumped a slow rhythm and he lifted his head just enough to lick her muzzle lovingly. He then laid his head down again and closed his eyes, once more falling into a restful sleep. "He will be well enough to leave the thicket by morning," she informed Zaphiro.
She wasn't sure what to think of the stallion. She kept her eyes down, though her ears and nose followed his restless movements. He seemed... she searched mentally for the right term. He seemed tightly restrained, she decided. Held in, like a soquili in harness. He didn't seem to strain against it, though. Just the opposite, it seemed to be something he retreated into. She wondered if she was the reason for the retreating, or if the situation simply brought him to that action. Regardless, she quietly also kept to herself, respecting his wish to remain detatched. It wasn't her way, but she would honor it.
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Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:37 am
"I suppose not...after all, if we could make sense of evil, then I daresay we'd have been able to eradicate it completely some time ago. Still, it's a discouraging thought." Still, excessive fretting wasn't going to accomplish anything, and neither was excessive mulling. On that thought, Zaphiro finally stopped in his pacing; it was a restless habit that he had somehow managed to acquire that usually occured in tandem with his fretting. Common sense brought home the point that pacing was more likely to be bothersome to the wolf and audible to the ears of enemies, so that also helped kill his wanderings. At least for now.
Then again, he didn't really have any right to be on edge. He hadn't been in danger until he put himself there, so there was nothing to get bothered about. T'Cora and Mystre had had it far worse than he had, yet both seemed to be the picture of peace and contentment now...
Well, he could do peaceful himself. Nodding, he acknowledged T'Cora's statement of health, then glanced around the thicket. Not the most spacious of places, but at least it was secure and they'd be safe here until morning. Besides, who'd want to wrestle their way through these thorns on a whim?
Looking downwards at Mystre, he suddenly broke his meditative silence with a question that had been gnawing at him for a while. "You and your wolf friend seem to be very close, T'Cora; have you been together for a long time, then?" He'd heard of animal familiars, of course, but the bond these two shared seemed amazingly powerful, something out of the ordinary. Or maybe it was just she herself...
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Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:06 pm
The stars wheeled overhead as they talked. The mare watched them as she listended to Zaphiro ramble for a bit about eradication, something she could never fathom or stomach herself. There was always a balance of things, or nothing would be right. She kept these thoughts to herself, however, to avoid conflict with this strange stallion. She was intrigued by him and his glistening feathers, but entirely baffled by him as well.
She turned her thoughts to his latest questoin. "Oh aye, we have been together since birth. I was born as the moon crested the boundary of the sea. Before it had risen to it's zenith, Mystre was born. My people saw it as a sign and put us together immediately. We have rarely been seperated since." She cast her eyes back down to the sleeping wolf, whose fur glowed softly in the starlight. "I turned out to be his link to the world, and the world to him. He is mute, though few seem to notice it." She feel into a reflective silence, mentally wrapping Mystre in a blanket of love.
She broke the silence finally, looking back up at him as he stood nearby. "Have you anyone you are close to or grew up with? Or perhaps a lady friend?" It wasn't exactly malicious, but she felt she had told him much about herself, and he had volunteered very little. It was a subconcious move, due to how he seemed to seperate himself from her somehow. He would have to work to learn anything more about herself and the wolf.
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Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:27 pm
"I see..." Tilting his head thoughtfully, Zaphiro pondered what T'Cora was saying, eyeing the still wolf with something akin to awe. He'd never had a familiar himself, but from what he had been able to determine even that strong bond was negligible compared to the symbiosis that this mare seemed to share with the wolf. At the same time, he was slightly perplexed by the story of their bonding; her people seemed to be a bit more ethereal than any he had met before, and that seemed to have been backed up by the dreamlike appearance she'd adopted.
Still, he wasn't one to pass judgement on anyone; in a way, her peacefullness was calming on he himself. Or maybe that was just because she was a unicorn; he didn't really know.
Her quesion, however, seemed completely at odds with the illusion of serenity he'd held mere moments before. In fact, it was downright...direct! Still, she'd told him about herself, so it made sense fo him to return the favor. It wasn't like there was much to tell, after all.
"Well, I hope you'll forgive the shortness of my answer, but there really isn't any good answer." Smiling in a wry fashion, Zaphiro turned to look back at T'Cora and Mystre. "I never knew my parents and basically grew up alone. I did recently join a herd; my new herdmates are pleasant enough when they're around, but all of us seem to share a predisposition to roaming. And, no, there are no ladies anywhere on my horizon. Obviously I'm not the type that attracts them."
He wasn't sure what exactly inspired him, but as he spoke he gave her a conspiratorial wink. That last comment of his was in some ways serious, but ultimately a joke. It wasn't that they didn't find him attractive...but they did for the wrong reasons, sadly.
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Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 8:11 pm
The blue and green swirled mare stared at him in something akin to astonishment or bafflement. Her mind simply was not geared right that moment for playfulness, though normally it was a natural part of of her personality. Still, having just used much of her personal energy to save the dearest being on this earth to her, she simply wasn't in any condition to grasp a jest from a stallion that so far had been far too serious.
She looked him over carefully, then deep into his eyes in clear confusion. "I'm sorry, I don't understand what would cause mares to not consider you they're type." Her eyes were clouded with her inability to fathom the comment, but clear of any malice or deceit. "You certainly seem handsome enough, and your manners are impecable. One could barely find fault with your conduct. So why do you think you don't attract mares?" Her tiredness had stripped her of her usual diplomacy and tact, so her blunt manner was unsoftened. She didn't intend on being so straight-forward, but the situation brought it out.
The late rising moon was beginning to add light to the sky, though the trees and brambles kept them from seeing the actual moon itself. It wouldn't be long now until daylight would begin to creep across the starry sky. Even the night-stirring creatures were settling in to sleep again after their various nocturnal activities of eating and roaming and rooting about. It had come to the true still of the night.
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Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:27 pm
...Ok, obviously this had not been the time for levity; but then, given all that had happened today ought to have maybe hinted at that fact to Zaphiro himself. At least this wasn't something that was hard to clarify...and all other factors aside, it was nice to hear some comforting words aimed his way for once. T'Cora was certainly a kind mare for complimenting him so, and he wasn't the type to brush off compliments.
"My apologies, T'Cora; I was making a jest that the situation didn't warrant. I HAVE been a subject of interest to mares before, but..." Tilting his head to the side, he tried to come up with a diplomatic way to describe the mares that had basically wanted to sleep with him the second they first laid eyes on him...and had told him so. Best to just go with banality. "But they weren't my type." That ought to be safe. "However, I appreciate both your concern on my behalf and your kind words of praise." And he did mean that; for once, he was actually getting an honest compliment without any ulterior motive...and that was a pleasant feeling.
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