The chill that settles in is the coldest known in decades. It seems to freeze the very marrow in your bones, and even your breath solidifies with each exhale. Few would leave the comforts of their herd in such a time, but something compels you and a friend to stray away.
The night is quiet; peaceful, even, despite the cold. The snow is barely felt between your shared warmth and the world appears hushed beneath the blanket that covers it. All goes well, until a pitiful cry cuts across the night. Despite your hindered steps, you soon find the source: a young foal on the shores, separated from its herd and trapped atop a precarious shard of ice amongst chopping waves.
You and your companion attempt to help, but it is not long until your friend is likewise trapped. Suddenly, the night is not so quiet. Winds rise, their howling merging with the foal's cries and the pounding of the waters. It only takes a glance to know that you can save only one.
What compelled you to leave this night? How do you respond to the predicament you are forced into? Who do you save and who do you leave to die? And, most importantly, how do the events this night change you?
Reply to the prompt above to be eligible to win the mare. Entries may be edited up until the deadline. This closes on December 21, 2013 January 4, 2014 at 6:00 PM PST | 7:00 PM MST | 8:00 PM CST | 9:00 PM EST, or until there are three entries; whichever comes later.
Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 2:06 pm
Name: Mistral
Prompt: It was but another night, and tonight of all nights was when Mistral's best friend, Adonia, challenged her to an ice glide. As quietly as they could, the two slipped out away from their herd to find a frozen body of water for their game. The trek had started as usual, suppressed giggles and jovial teasing - but it was quickly sidetracked at the first cry of help. The two friends stopped, ears pricked to catch any sounds. Their gazes drifted off into the distance as they waited with bated breath. This time a desperate shriek cut the silence, their eyes instantly met and they both knew where it was coming from.
They ran as fast as they could in the newly fallen snow drift but the weather was against them. A few more cries emanated from behind the last snow-covered hill, they were almost there...
As they crested the slight hump of snow-covered land, a small speck of color could be seen thrashing about in the moving water where the river had not fully frozen. Mistral slowed, trying to see what was trapped in the frigid ice water. It was a foal!
She stared in disbelief at her best friend as she sped up and slid down the hill to the shore and finally maneuvered across the slick ice with little trouble. Mistral stopped to watch Adonia play hero. She was more apt at it than her. "It's alright, little one. I have you." The motherly mare reassured the young foal.
Mistral felt a twinge of guilt that she was still standing on the other side of the shore. But she remained still as she watched her best friend take the initiative. Adonia kept repeating, "I have you." as she attempted a few tries to grab a hold of the young's short mane - despite half of her words constantly being lost to the wind. It seemed to have had an effect on the foal, and they stopped thrashing as wildly. The look in those foal's eyes hit Mistral's depth of her soul. The look of complete trust and faith filled those scared orbs.
The look was short-lived as a thundering crack erupted from between them. Panic flooded the foal's irises. "It's going to be alright," Adonia raised her voice as more ice cracked from somewhere near them.
"Adonia!" Mistral had finally found her voice, and courage, as she lunged towards the two. From her vantage point she could see a jagged line cutting across the frozen sheet towards her friend. It was too late. Adonia raised her head to watch her friend, before an odd look washed over her features. What was it? Knowing, resignation? One final cracking boom filled the night as the ice beneath Adonia gave way. In a blink of an eye, she fell through. The foal shrieked and flailed as it tried to avoid the freshly broken chunks of ice.
Mistral cried out again for her friend as she rushed to the edge of the river where slush met ice. Her eyes frantically scanned the water but saw nothing. How could that be? Where was she? And why had she not surfaced?
The cold whipped at her face, biting into her cheeks, and the colder truth began to seep into her depths. Adonia was gone, lost to the bottom current - the one that all local Hoi learn to avoid. The last thought brought her attention back to the flailing foal, the one who had obviously not yet learned. She watched for a few brief moments, frozen in time and place. Mistral was not her friend, how could she possibly do this?
Adonia's face flashed in her thoughts. What was that look? Had she known she had failed? Was she trying to tell her something? A flurry of emotions filled her as she watched the foal's fight begin to dwindle. Now she was too late...
Mistral cried out in frustration at her thoughts and in grief. She pushed herself forward through the slush. She had always been a more powerful swimmer than her friend. Within a few strokes, she was close enough to the exhausted young to grasp a mouthful of its mane. And none too soon, the foal's eyes were half-closed and its head barely above the water.
She summoned all of her strength and pulled the foal, a filly now that she was close enough to tell, close to her body. Her neck muscles strained at having to keep the filly's long muzzle out of the water. The trip back to shore took thrice as long but the two Hoi eventually made it. Drained of energy, Mistral didn't move them far and curled herself around the wet foal. She nuzzled the side of the girl's face, and the little one's eyes fluttered slightly before closing again. Mistral's heart began racing, but quickly settled when she saw the filly's chest rise and fall steadily. Sleep overtook both of them.
It took half a day before Mistral's herd found the two still huddled on the river's banks. There were many questions asked but few were answered. The lost filly had been recently orphaned and had wandered into unknown lands. Many of the herd asked about Adonia, but all Mistral could do was stare out at the frozen part of the river.
She had become a hollow emotionless vessel. It wasn't that she didn't care, she couldn't anymore. Even when the poor parent-less foal began following her around daily, desperate for something that Mistral couldn't give. Mistral was forever altered.
Azael_Rose
Festive Hunter
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bell curve
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Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 9:50 pm
Mare's Name: Agaphoros [ a portmanteau of agape + -phoros "to carry [unconditional] love" ]
Prompt Response:
“Hurry, before the cold snaps our hooves off,” Kandake whispered, shaking her dappled head in a futile effort against the biting wind. She is a stunning hippoi, with silver hooves and mane, a lush, dappled hide of brown and white, and eyes that glow with Aphrodite’s approval. Agaphoros cannot help but follow her closer to the shore, as bewitched with Kandake as she was so many years ago, when they had first met as foals.
Agaphoros stamped her hooves, wishing the heavy braid of her mane were swathed around her body instead of delicately piled on her neck. Frozen shells, Kandake had said, only seen during the coldest nights. We must see them before they all disappear! If only those coldest nights weren’t also the most dangerous nights of the year –but Kandake was her dearest friend, and if that meant following her to the treacherous shores, even if the shores dragged them to Hades.
As if her thoughts had called the god himself, Agaphoros heard a thin wail, broken and helpless. Ahead, Kandake reared in surprise, hearing it as well.
“Did you hear that?” Kandake said. She broke into a run toward the shore, snow flurrying from her hooves, as the cry sounded again. “It sounded like a hippoi! We must find them!”
Agaphoros swiftly bounded after her as they bounded across the snow, skirting down the incline to the seashore. The wind howled around them, louder and angrier at the waterfront, biting into Agaphoros’s hide with jabbing fingers of ice. Ahead, the ice flow rocked in the water, disturbed by something that had cracked the seamless surface into spindly fragments. Kandake skittered to a stop at the shoreline, whinnying at something on the ice, her legs dancing as though she meant to leap onto the ice at any moment.
That something, Agaphoros saw, was a foal, thin and long-limbed, trapped on a quickly dwindling slab of ice. He cried out again, attempting to stand, but his hooves slipped and he fell, desperately clinging to the slab with his whole body. Kandake whinnied again, and before Agaphoros could stop her, leapt onto the ice flow, making her way through to the foal. But the ice flow was breaking under her weight, the waves rocking each broken slab against each other, and the foal was slowly ebbing to the open sea.
“Kandake!” Agaphoros cried, pacing on the shore. How could she follow Kandake into this? But Kandake was making her way to the foal, crying reassurances, and Agaphoros could see the ice separating, the dark water slopping its way between the blocks. “Kandake, the ice is breaking! Come back!”
“I have to save him!” Kandake called, her voice almost indistinguishable, planting her whole body into moving forward. The wind whipped her mane until she was a cloud of brown and silver and white, a deity of mercy for the stricken foal, but Agaphoros knew that both would perish in the ice, for the largest flow was slipping away, and only one path remained to the shore.
“And I have to save you,” Agaphoros said, steeling herself. And she lunged onto the ice block, dashing forward blindly, jumping from one slab to another and ignoring the steel bite of cold as her hooves slipped into water. Kandake was pulling the foal up by his mane, nudging him to stand, but her body was too forward, too close to the water, and the block she was standing on was tilting, about to fall –
Agaphoros lunged, and clenched her teeth into Kandake’s tail, and pulled, until Kandake fell back with a cry of surprise. The ice block whirled and tilted, but stayed afloat, the water frothing around it, but the foal was gone, nowhere to be found, its own iceblock bobbing madly, flipped over. Kandake lifted herself to her knees with a cry of pain, her flank bleeding heavily. Agaphoros wasted no more time, and was by Kandake’s side in an instance, pushing Kandake upwards.
“Go – go – you must get to the shore, I will try to save him,” Agaphoros said, and Kandake said nothing, just looked at her with wide, shocked eyes, and Agaphoros pushed at her until she stutteringly made her way to the next ice block. Agaphoros could not look at Kandake, and instead looked for the foal, scanning the water until – a movement, breaking the water, and the foal scrambled to get his hooves onto the ice, nostrils flaring barely above water. His limbs flailed madly, but he could not get a grip, and Agaphoros could not reach him, for the ice flow was too far out to see. His head finally broke out of the water, and he cried desperately, his eyes rolling.
“I cannot help,” Agaphoros whinnied to the foal, despairing. He looked back, head already succumbing to the waves once again. The ice flow drifted away, the winds howling and pushing against them. Agaphoros watched him, crying tears that were blown away by the cold. “I am no follower of Ares – I have not the strength to reach you.”
Turning, she rushed from the ice, slipping and falling against the flows, chest heaving and mane unraveled, until she stumbled onto the snowy shore, where Kandake was lying on her side, breathing weakly. Agaphoros made her way and stumbled next to Kandake, still crying, and pressed her nose into the open wound of Kandake’s thigh.
“Why did you save me?” Kandake said weakly. The blood had wept and stained the snow around her body into a vivid flower. “I could have saved myself, but he could not. Why did you do that?” “How could I not save you, my friend? I would save you every time,” Agaphoros sobbed to Kandake’s flank, unmindful of the blood running down her muzzle. How could she not save her friend, who she’d known her whole life, who was the most beautiful hippoi gifted by Aphrodite, who she loved? And to lose her for a starving colt – Agaphoros broke of her thoughts. I am not worthy of my goddess, she thought miserably to herself, even as she pressed closer to Kandake, shivering with the cold.
“Agaphoros, no…” Kandake whispered softly as though she knew what Agaphoros was thinking. Her eyes were still shocked, but she slowly let her tail rest against Agaphoros’s. “Thank you – thank you.”
They lied together in the bitter cold and melting snow, the wind howling in triumph above them, while Kandake’s blood froze into the ground. Agaphoros nuzzled Kandake’s neck, breathing her in, and let her tears soak into her mane. She felt as though she had betrayed the most vulnerable part of herself, had let something drown as she had let the foal drown, had betrayed her devotion to her goddess by letting die what she held most sacred. The foal’s rolling eyes followed her as she closed her own, but even as she whispered a prayer of his passing in her mind, she knew she could not regret what she had done. Agaphoros would let the foal die, again and again and again, to let Kandake live.
Posted: Sun Dec 29, 2013 12:36 am
Name: Elyssia
Prompt: A soft, twinkling sound filtered through the chill air of the most quiet of nights on the eve of the most important of days. Come the morning, she would no longer be free. The discomfort must have read on her face, because in the next moment she heard his voice, trying to be reassuring.
"It'll be okay," he murmured, but despite his good intentions, she was sure he still didn't support her in this outlandish situation the way she would have preferred.
"Prax..." Just don't, her tone said.
"Ah, forgive me."
All grew still and silent again. They had stopped walking, when exactly she wasn't sure, but she now grew more aware of the cold seeping into her ankles. Things had been so awkward between them lately, ever since that time some months ago when it was announced that they were promised. It had come as a surprise, but apparently only to her. Praxiteles, her friend since childhood, had known but made no attempts to sway any minds from it. She had been heartbroken.
She cared for him, but as a brother. She could never imagine being with him as a lover. Though it seemed, unbeknownst to her, he had developed such feelings for her at some point before now. When, she wondered. How long had she been blind to it?
"Elyssia, let's head back. They'll expect us early tomorrow."
Hooves remained planted despite the urging. The mare, Elyssia by name, had summoned her friend and promised out here for a reason. To convince him, to beg him if need be, to have his father call off the joining. She was too young, her will too big, to be confined to a bond she felt nothing for.
"We need to talk," she began, words next to no one would be pleased to hear. And so, he acted as if he hadn't heard or at least chose not to listen.
"We need to head ba-"
"Prax! Listen to me, please!" The shout cut harshly, her voice edged with desperation. Yet, before she could continue, an even needier cry rattled their teeth. It was greater than the chill could ever hope to do.
"What was that?" Elyssia questioned, their quarrel forgotten, her head whipping around and ears stood straight. "Did you hear it?"
"I did," came the response. Praxiteles was already galloping towards the shore. "It sounded worrisome!" he was yelling against the wind now. Elyssia ran after, struggling to keep up. He'd always been faster, and it felt quite suddenly like nature itself was fighting them back. Had the wind been so bitter before?
The inky blackness of night water spread out before them in little time, however, spotted here and there with shards of white that glimmered in the moonlight. It would have been serene were it not for the second struggled call their ears caught, louder than the first, signaling they were getting ever closer. Against a backdrop of ice stood a form so dark that she momentarily mistook it for waves lashing up against the floe. Instead it proved to be a foal, coated near-black, struggling to keep his balance against the ice where he had trampled the snow down in a frenzy.
"What should we do?" she cried out, halting at what had been the almost indistinguishable edge between land and ice until she noted, with a heavy beat of her heart, Praxiteles had darted out onto it and shifted the entire cluster of sheets further into the water.
"Prax!" When he didn't acknowledge her, she tried again. "Praxiteles!" Still he did not turn, he had slipped dangerously out onto a block nearest the colt's and was urging him to gather whatever god given courage he had to take a step towards his would-be savior and the safety of more secure ice.
Brave, gallant, selfless, the herd would call him. Reckless and foolhardy, Elyssia preferred. Though she worried falling in, she slowly made her way across the floes. As she moved, so did the foal, reaching as far as his wobbling legs would allow towards the ice where Praxiteles stood, legs splayed, waiting for the proper moment. He had seen his promised coming, and despite the dire situation, he grinned. This was his chance to earn her love, he thought. When the moment was right, he'd grabbed the colt's mane between his teeth and gave a great heave, sending it towards the uncracked ice nearer the shore.
The motion, both painful and unexpected, had the colt struggling against his own rescue. Spindly legs splashed and kicked, unbalancing the block and sending them both into a struggle for a foothold. Elyssia was shouting, but the gusts across the water cut her words into nothing. Time was moving both too fast and too slow all in the same instant.
The foal would fall, Praxiteles would fall. She could reach out to one, perhaps steady them, perhaps save them. Her heart gave another great thud, it felt as if the wind were knocked out of her, she leaned out as far as she could, her entire body shook. Prax's eyes were on hers, all semblance of selflessness gone. They pleaded for her choice to be him. How unfortunate that in her eyes he would see she had already made her decision.
Her teeth clamped around the foal's mane and she tugged with all her might, sending them both falling in a tangle of limbs against the sturdier blocks. It was not out of care for the foal, the same one who now bruised her side in its bid to be up and onto firm land, that she made her choice. In the heat of the moment, she thought if Praxiteles drowned, then she would be free.
Elyssia struggled to her hooves, looking back only long enough to see a smear of blood against the edge of the ice where her once promised had smashed his head on the way down. It took two or three bobs into the water before it was completely washed away, along with any signs another life had been here this night. Along with any hope he would resurface.
The mare's chest was burning. She had sacrificed her very best friend for her own fleeting relief, and despite any praise she might receive for saving the life of a child, she would know the choice had been a selfish one. Now, hobbling ashore, she opted to work at banishing the great dread and guilt that lay heavy upon her, lest it destroy her.
Elyssia was not happy. As she woke the members of their herd with her shouting to tell them what had happened, she wore no expression, did not even join them in their sudden disbelief and mourning. The days that passed were cold and similar and she lived her life as if nothing had happened despite the judgmental looks she often received for it, and of even greater consequence, despite the guilt she worked to hide. The only real difference between this life and the prior was Praxiteles no longer met her each morning with a stupid, but admittedly endearing, grin on his face.
No, Elyssia was not happy, but at least, she told herself in attempt to remain independent and strong, she was free.
saedusk
Dedicated Bunny
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Ryuukishin
Man-Hungry Fatcat
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Posted: Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:10 am
An extension has been requested! This will close on the 4th of Jan, and no later.
Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:36 pm
Mare's Name: Aisling
Prompt: It buried itself, deep underneath the layer of winter fur and despite any attempts to dull its grasp; the piercing cold seemed to take over every creature’s body letting shivers crawl across their backs. Some huddled close with one another in attempt to keep warm as their teeth chattered to each breeze; others wore a fierce look on their face as if their sheer warrior like strength would be able to keep the chill at bay. It was not a night to be out and far from the herd, however despite its warning it was becoming the almost perfect night for the mare.
Aisling had spent months dreaming just for this moment, the moon was just high and full enough to let its soft pale glow catch the snow and icicles causing the into land to light with little reflecting lights. It was almost magical, but not nearly as magical as the rich ebony stallion that was next to her. Every step he took she could see the light cascade along his muscles, his long soft curls lingered just above the powdered snow as if teasing to touch it and his tail trailed like a cape behind him. There was only one small white mark along the edge of his shoulder in which caused him great trouble with red cheeks when she would mention how cute it was.
They chatted, mostly little things like their siblings, or what someone had done in the herd that week, things of little importance. At times he would tell a little joke that would get her soft laughter to escape from her lips. But tonight was going to be the night Aisling was sure of it, everything was just as she had dreamed of and he would finally ask her.
When they had reached their small hiding spot among the trees he turned to her taking in a deep breath of air, her heart was fluttering, beating loudly into her ears.
“Asiling I…” He started his voice looking for the strength for his words to be perfect as a scream shrieked through the air.
“What was that…” Aisling replied, her brows furrowed with worry as he plunged forward into the snow heading in the direction that it had come.
The air started to grow colder as they legs started to ache from trying to run in the deep snow, their lungs fighting to keep up against the shock of cool air filling in as the air filled with a white fog. The screams grew closer as the sound of waves crashing along the rocky shore threatened to drown them out. The ice had shifted, cracked and had broken into larger pieces that rolled along the top of the waves. Clinging desperately to one was a small foal, its body shivering as each new peak threatened to toss the foal from the slick icy surface.
Without a moment’s hesitation he leaped into the water letting the ocean spray splatter along the ground near Aisling’s hooves. She watched, nervously pacing back and forth along the edge of the shore as he swam towards the foal. At times she could bit her lip as a large chunk of ice threatened to crash over him. A scream of worry would rise to her throat as a heavy pit hung in her stomach. As he reached the foal she could see him scream at him, trying to get him to jump and to swim back with him. The foal was shaking its head furiously as another wave started to form along the surface.
Before the sound even left her lips she was running forward, watching in horror as the wave curled up sending the foal and chunk of ice downwards onto the stallion. The smell of blood started to fill the air as she plunged into the water and her body going numb as the shocking cold greeted her.
“Noalan! Noalan!” She screamed the salty tasty of water flooded her tongue, her eyes fiercely searching for any sight of him, anything sign that he was still alive that he was still there. The foal swam towards her its body shivering as the water threatened to drag it under into the dark abyss. Frantically she still searched, her body growing heavy as the cold started to sink into her muscles the waves growing larger. The sound of a whimper brought her back looking into the pleading eyes of the small foal. For only a small moment she hesitated, her thoughts still screaming for him as a whisper sounded in her ears. With bitter tears streaking down her face she got closer to the foal and swam towards the shore.
The sun was edging along the horizon, its warm rays reaching the sky letting the world turn from a deep purple into a soft glow of red and gold. The foal’s family was long gone, they had given her their praise but it had only fallen on deaf ears. All night she had stayed there screaming into the piercing cold and all night she paced along the edge of the shadowy sea until her voice had gone completely silent. The feeling of freezing could no longer be felt as ice still lingered on her once wet fur and hair merely glittered in the light.
The tears were no longer able to slide down her cheeks as she watched the sun continued to greet her as the whisper nestled itself deep into her chest as the only warm shred of hope in her body as the words kept replaying.
“I love you.”
stella cinere
Ice-Cold Codger
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Ritikine
Fashionable Risk-Taker
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Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 4:08 pm
Name: Jaassa
Prompt: The cool air rushed past Jaassa as she walked silently through the cold night, wing whipping past as she stared ahead, gaze focused intently upon the path ahead of her. A misstep on the rocky paths could cause problems, especially when much of the ground was hiding beneath the white snows of winter.
The crunch of snow and gravel behind her pulls Jaassa's attention away from her steady thoughts. Who would be so foolish as to follow her out here!
"Where are you off to at such a late hour, Jaassa?" A stallion spoke, one whom went by the name of Pirozu. Jaas inwardly cursed at his presence, however smiled at the stallion.
"I could not rest and thought I would take a stroll. You should head back though, it is quite late."
The stallion snorted and shook his head. "Nonsense, I'll join you. It can be dangerous wandering around out here during winter, especially at night."
Jaassa's ears flicked back for a moment. This would not do, not at all. She had someone else to meet and Piro following along certainly put a kink in her plans. "Of course." She spoke, somewhat flatter than intended. 'Calm yourself, Jaassa, you will figure something out. Pirozu is not the smartest of hippoi so surely you can be rid of him somehow.'
The pair followed the path slowly, with each step Jaassa trying to think of a way to rid herself of her unwanted company. However nothing seemed to come to mind and they were fast approaching the designated meeting spot. Around a bend in the path the came into sight and there was no sign of any other life out here. Perhaps they had not been so foolish as to some meet her alone so late. "So how far are we going to walk? The path gets more dangerous ahead." The stallion questioned, however before Jaassa could reply a cry rent the air. Seemingly without a second thought the stallion rushed forward, snow and small rocks flying up as he hurried to find the owner of the cry. "Quickly, Jaassa, we must help!" Pirozu's cry followed after him.
Jaassa followed him, however not quite as hurriedly. She came to a halt on an outcropping that overlooked a lake. It was a spot quite popular in the warmer months, however could be just as fun as treacherous during winter when it froze over. Pirozu stood beside her, staring down at the frozen lake. The cry had halted and she could see the stallion searching desperately to find where the cry had come from. Just then a small head popped out from the waters below, just barely visible. "There!" Pirozu cried out. "We must help it!"
Jaassa spotted the small head as well, a faint smile playing across her face. There he was, the foolish little one. He had actually come. Not just that, but the silly little foal had managed to get himself into quite a mess. A rush of grey went past her as Pirozu quickly made his way down a precarious path that led to the water's edge, Jaassa following slowly after him. For but a moment the stallion paused before diving into the icy, dark waters. He disappeared for a moment before his own head broke the surface. She could see him struggling to move forward while also keeping himself up. Jaassa gingerly stepped forward, stopping just as her front hooves hit water. By then Piro had reached the spot where the foal had been, but the small one seemed to have gone under once more. "Jaassa, I can't find him!" The stallion called back desperately. "I can't find the foal!"
"That's unfortunate." Came her reply as she watched the stallion struggle. Perhaps she could have once called this stallion a friend, but he had so foolishly got in the way. That foal's companion would no longer make a fool of her human. They would not get in her way again. Yet this sad stallion had unwittingly got int he middle of it. 'Poor Pirozu. Dear, witless stallion. How unfortunate he had to get caught up in this. But we will achieve such great things, and I will not risk that for him.'
"Jaassa!" Pirozu cried out, struggling desperately to get back to the shores. "Jass--" With that the stallion dissappeared. The water waved, rippled, then stilled. The night became quiet and Jaassa was left once more alone in the cold, late hours of this day. No one was going to get in the way of her and her human achieving greatness. No one.
Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:59 pm
Closed for judging!
Ryuukishin
Man-Hungry Fatcat
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Ryuukishin
Man-Hungry Fatcat
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Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 4:44 pm
Apologies for the wait! In the end, I had to bring in another to help judge between all these wonderful entries.
Without further ado, congrats to bell curve! Her winning entry can be seen below!
bell curve
Mare's Name: Agaphoros [ a portmanteau of agape + -phoros "to carry [unconditional] love" ]
Prompt Response:
“Hurry, before the cold snaps our hooves off,” Kandake whispered, shaking her dappled head in a futile effort against the biting wind. She is a stunning hippoi, with silver hooves and mane, a lush, dappled hide of brown and white, and eyes that glow with Aphrodite’s approval. Agaphoros cannot help but follow her closer to the shore, as bewitched with Kandake as she was so many years ago, when they had first met as foals.
Agaphoros stamped her hooves, wishing the heavy braid of her mane were swathed around her body instead of delicately piled on her neck. Frozen shells, Kandake had said, only seen during the coldest nights. We must see them before they all disappear! If only those coldest nights weren’t also the most dangerous nights of the year –but Kandake was her dearest friend, and if that meant following her to the treacherous shores, even if the shores dragged them to Hades.
As if her thoughts had called the god himself, Agaphoros heard a thin wail, broken and helpless. Ahead, Kandake reared in surprise, hearing it as well.
“Did you hear that?” Kandake said. She broke into a run toward the shore, snow flurrying from her hooves, as the cry sounded again. “It sounded like a hippoi! We must find them!”
Agaphoros swiftly bounded after her as they bounded across the snow, skirting down the incline to the seashore. The wind howled around them, louder and angrier at the waterfront, biting into Agaphoros’s hide with jabbing fingers of ice. Ahead, the ice flow rocked in the water, disturbed by something that had cracked the seamless surface into spindly fragments. Kandake skittered to a stop at the shoreline, whinnying at something on the ice, her legs dancing as though she meant to leap onto the ice at any moment.
That something, Agaphoros saw, was a foal, thin and long-limbed, trapped on a quickly dwindling slab of ice. He cried out again, attempting to stand, but his hooves slipped and he fell, desperately clinging to the slab with his whole body. Kandake whinnied again, and before Agaphoros could stop her, leapt onto the ice flow, making her way through to the foal. But the ice flow was breaking under her weight, the waves rocking each broken slab against each other, and the foal was slowly ebbing to the open sea.
“Kandake!” Agaphoros cried, pacing on the shore. How could she follow Kandake into this? But Kandake was making her way to the foal, crying reassurances, and Agaphoros could see the ice separating, the dark water slopping its way between the blocks. “Kandake, the ice is breaking! Come back!”
“I have to save him!” Kandake called, her voice almost indistinguishable, planting her whole body into moving forward. The wind whipped her mane until she was a cloud of brown and silver and white, a deity of mercy for the stricken foal, but Agaphoros knew that both would perish in the ice, for the largest flow was slipping away, and only one path remained to the shore.
“And I have to save you,” Agaphoros said, steeling herself. And she lunged onto the ice block, dashing forward blindly, jumping from one slab to another and ignoring the steel bite of cold as her hooves slipped into water. Kandake was pulling the foal up by his mane, nudging him to stand, but her body was too forward, too close to the water, and the block she was standing on was tilting, about to fall –
Agaphoros lunged, and clenched her teeth into Kandake’s tail, and pulled, until Kandake fell back with a cry of surprise. The ice block whirled and tilted, but stayed afloat, the water frothing around it, but the foal was gone, nowhere to be found, its own iceblock bobbing madly, flipped over. Kandake lifted herself to her knees with a cry of pain, her flank bleeding heavily. Agaphoros wasted no more time, and was by Kandake’s side in an instance, pushing Kandake upwards.
“Go – go – you must get to the shore, I will try to save him,” Agaphoros said, and Kandake said nothing, just looked at her with wide, shocked eyes, and Agaphoros pushed at her until she stutteringly made her way to the next ice block. Agaphoros could not look at Kandake, and instead looked for the foal, scanning the water until – a movement, breaking the water, and the foal scrambled to get his hooves onto the ice, nostrils flaring barely above water. His limbs flailed madly, but he could not get a grip, and Agaphoros could not reach him, for the ice flow was too far out to see. His head finally broke out of the water, and he cried desperately, his eyes rolling.
“I cannot help,” Agaphoros whinnied to the foal, despairing. He looked back, head already succumbing to the waves once again. The ice flow drifted away, the winds howling and pushing against them. Agaphoros watched him, crying tears that were blown away by the cold. “I am no follower of Ares – I have not the strength to reach you.”
Turning, she rushed from the ice, slipping and falling against the flows, chest heaving and mane unraveled, until she stumbled onto the snowy shore, where Kandake was lying on her side, breathing weakly. Agaphoros made her way and stumbled next to Kandake, still crying, and pressed her nose into the open wound of Kandake’s thigh.
“Why did you save me?” Kandake said weakly. The blood had wept and stained the snow around her body into a vivid flower. “I could have saved myself, but he could not. Why did you do that?” “How could I not save you, my friend? I would save you every time,” Agaphoros sobbed to Kandake’s flank, unmindful of the blood running down her muzzle. How could she not save her friend, who she’d known her whole life, who was the most beautiful hippoi gifted by Aphrodite, who she loved? And to lose her for a starving colt – Agaphoros broke of her thoughts. I am not worthy of my goddess, she thought miserably to herself, even as she pressed closer to Kandake, shivering with the cold.
“Agaphoros, no…” Kandake whispered softly as though she knew what Agaphoros was thinking. Her eyes were still shocked, but she slowly let her tail rest against Agaphoros’s. “Thank you – thank you.”
They lied together in the bitter cold and melting snow, the wind howling in triumph above them, while Kandake’s blood froze into the ground. Agaphoros nuzzled Kandake’s neck, breathing her in, and let her tears soak into her mane. She felt as though she had betrayed the most vulnerable part of herself, had let something drown as she had let the foal drown, had betrayed her devotion to her goddess by letting die what she held most sacred. The foal’s rolling eyes followed her as she closed her own, but even as she whispered a prayer of his passing in her mind, she knew she could not regret what she had done. Agaphoros would let the foal die, again and again and again, to let Kandake live.
Congrats! I'll be starting classes tomorrow and will be busy for some time, but if you don't mind a wait, I'd love to color Kandake for you on the condition that she be given away to another!
And thank you for your patience and participation, everyone!
Posted: Sun Jan 05, 2014 9:08 pm
Ryuukishin
Apologies for the wait! In the end, I had to bring in another to help judge between all these wonderful entries.
Without further ado, congrats to bell curve! Her winning entry can be seen below!
Congrats! I'll be starting classes tomorrow and will be busy for some time, but if you don't mind a wait, I'd love to color Kandake for you on the condition that she be given away to another!
And thank you for your patience and participation, everyone!
Ohhhh my goooshhhhHHHHHHH /SCREAMING EVERYWHERE Ah, man, I am so pumped and so excited. Thank you so much!!
(And that would be so amazing, it wouldn't be Agaphoros without Kandake! I definitely wouldn't mind the wait!)
