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 Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:46 pm
Avalokiteshvara eyed the forested hills between her and the direction she had been traveling in. Hills? Maybe they were small mountains. Either way, they were tall and rocky, not really an obstacle she would enjoy tackling unless she could find no other way past them. If she had only arrived here a little sooner in the season to see them alight with the colors of autumn. Now they were browning and some trees were already bare. It was a slightly ominous sight.
"Nothing to be done about it," she sighed to herself. She would at least make the attempt to cross over the least daunting looking one. She started her journey upwards with only a little slipping on dry leaves and scrambling over rocks... but the path before her only grew steeper.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:59 pm
 The sky was growing darker as the sun lowered in the sky, Scythe knew that he should be heading home soon. The winter winds were picking up and it got so cold outside of his teepee. Scythe looked around, hopeing to find just a few more berries left in the bushes. The cold weather had caused the majority of them to drop to the soil and ruin.
Looking only moments longer, Scythe nickered to himself, displeased with his findings. Maybe he'd have better luck tomorrow. His teepee was at the bottom mountain range, just before the tree line. He started heading South on the trail, it wouldn't take long to reach home. His ears flickered as he walked, he heard somthing but couldn't distinguish if it was someone there or just leaves brushing another as they were blown about by the wind. He stopped for a moment, his ears perked and alert his eyes scanning just to make sure there was no danger before he proceeded onward.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:06 pm
Vara was eying the next rock dubiously when she thought she heard movement. It could very well be a squirrel. They were busy packing away their nuts for the winter and she had almost stepped on some of the ones too busy with their task to pay her attention. When she heard it again, however, she decided it was too big and too rhythmic to be a squirrel. It sounded more like a very large deer, or a soquili.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" she called out in the direction she had heard it come from. "If so, I assure you that I mean no harm to you or this beautiful area." Some soquili could be very territorial, Vara had found. It didn't hurt to be up front about her intentions when meeting a stranger.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:11 pm
Scythe's ears flickered and settled pointing towards the direction of the voice that had called out from the forest. "A mare, in these parts?"
Scythe didn't know exactly what to say, he simply replied, "I'm here, no harm meant on my end." his eyes scoured over the surrounding area looking for any color that seemed out of place that might be a Soquili. "I'm looking for food!" he wanted to make sure that he didn't seem threatening to whomever it was out there. He knew what it was like to have the breath scared out of you by another. His ears flicked again as he tried to zone in on the direction of the voice. Curiousity would get the better of him one day.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:20 pm
So it was a soquili, a stallion from the sounds of it. "Well, I'm looking for a path over this hill... mountain... area." Vara turned from her rock and headed towards the stranger. "If you could help me with that then I'd be more than happy to assist with your-" She trailed off when she finally caught sight of him. His color was a beautiful dappled blue and his mane was extraordinary.
But his wings... such wings she had never seen. His horns reminded her of a kalona but those wings were something else entirely. A stab of pity went through her when she saw the broken chains hanging off the shackles around his ankles. The poor thing.
"As I was saying, I'd be happy to help you find food if you gave me some tips on traveling around here." She wiped the surprise off her face with a smile. His appearance was amazingly different, but no cause for alarm.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:31 pm
As he continued to search, he finally caught a flash of her coat, multi colored and patterned. Once she got closer, Scythe also caught the look of surprise on his face, he just smiled and shrugged slightly as if to say 'Don't worry, I'm use to it.'
"I'd be more than happy to show you the way," he looked past her into the surrounding forest, "Traveling alone in these parts?"
He took a few steps towards her, the metal links clinking as he walked. He stopped several steps away from her, he knew it wasn't polite to get too close without knowing the Soquili. His eyes drifted for a moment over her patterned coat, so complex. His head tilted slightly as he tried to make out what seemed like images upon her body. Not wanting to be rude, he quickly reverted his eyes, "There's a path that goes around and one that goes over. The path around is longer, but the path that goes over is much more dangerous. The winter weather has caused for slippery slopes and possible slides."
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:50 pm
"Yes, I'm traveling alone," Vara admitted while politely ignoring the stallion's examination. She was also well used to curiosity about her complex patterns and had indulged her own when she looked over the stallion's features. There was no harm in looking, after all, and it would be cruel to withhold it.
"I'm starting to think now that perhaps I ought to endure patiently and take the long way around." She laughed as she kept walking beside him. "It's better than than breaking a leg, isn't it?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 4:58 pm
"If you'd allow me to accompany you, it would make for a safer trip." Scythe's tail swished from side to side slowly as he walked, "There's dangers far worse than the weather in these parts after sun down." He was sure she already knew the dangers of traveling alone, but it never hurt to warn new comers.
"The path around would be my suggestion. The summit is beautiful when capped with snow, but I try to only gaze on it from afar until spring." The skies began to grow even darker but the moon was out, almost full. The moonlight would light the majority of the way until they reached the inner most parts of the forest. The canopy would be thick and didn't allow for much light to shine through. "What journey do you have that beckons you over the horizon?" He would understand if it was personal and she didn't want to answer.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:10 pm
He was indeed a darling, already offering to be her escort. Vara's tail swished happily behind her in appreciation of the new company. "I don't have a specific purpose. I suppose that I've already accomplished part of it. I'm always looking to meet new soquili and help them if they need it. There are so many out there alone with no one to turn to..." Her brow furrowed with sadness at the thought. "Too many for me to find and hope to help all of them... but I can try to help those that I do find."
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:23 pm
A smile spread across Scythe's face, "What a wonderful reason to journey into the unknown. I suppose I've fulfilled one part of that, I'm a new face to you." His smile broadened, he liked being a part of something.
He noted the saddened expression that crossed Vara's face, "Why do you look so sad at the thought of helping others?" He didn't realize that she was saddened by the thought of those she hadn't reached. "I'm sure you do a wonderful job with lonely Soquili." he nodded, trying to cheer her up.
Scythe hadn't had much contact with other Soquili, with the exception of a few mares that he had befriended before his own recent journey. He wasn't exactly sure of how to carry on conversations, but he was trying his best.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:44 pm
"Hm, well I try, at least." She shook some golden and red mane out from her eyes as they walked. "But I'm sad because..." Her smile turned a inwardly ironic, as if she herself were aware of the futility of her coming statement. "Because I can't help all of them. It's a pleasant sort of dream, but not one that can be expected to be accomplished by any one soquili, or even possible at all." Some sorrows ran deeper than what could be helped by the words of a stranger. A stranger... that reminded her.
"It seems like a good time for introductions. My name is Avalokiteshvara, though I imagine you'll want to shorten that." She smiled in good humor. She was so rarely called by her full name that the various shortenings sounded more familiar to her ears.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:58 pm
"It may not be logical, but it only becomes impossible if no one tries." Scythe continued to walk at a decent pace, his chains clanking with each step. Luckily over the years, the links had work down so that he would walk without becoming tripped up.
Scythe snorted a bit as his tongue tied trying to pronouce her name, "You'll have to forgive me, but I'm afraid I can't pronounce that." His face flustered up a bit from ebarassement. "Might I call you Vara?" He cast a friendly eye towards her. "I'm Scythe. Not so plesant of a name, but easy enough to say." He didn't realize that his words may have come out sounding as though he was making fun of her name, he didn't mean it in that fashion. "Have you been journeying long?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:15 pm
"I've been journeying for most of my adult life. I settled down with my son until he grew old enough to be independent and when he left on his own I started again." The thought of her son always left her feeling a little lonely. Her time with Hayagriva had been time she would always cherish. She hadn't seen him since he left to go on his own adventure and didn't think that she would see him again soon. It wasn't out of negligence on his behalf, just a young and free spirit that needed to grow.
"What about you?" she changed the subject and hoped to change her mood with it. "With wings like those I imagine you could range over a much wider area than I can."
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:29 pm
Scythe spread his wings a bit when Vara mentioned them, then tucked them closely back into the barrel of his body. He would have asked more of her son, but he noted that she didn't seem to want to speak of him much. He rolled along with the change of subject.
"Aye, well. They carry me when the wind is right." Unlike other winged Soquili, Scythe couldn't fly high or very far. The weight of his unusual span only allowed short distances. "I remain grounded for the most part, I glide more than fly." His wings and horns had caused him much trouble in his life, he just recently learned to accept who he was and how he looked to others. "I've recently just returned from a journey of my own," he looked ahead, almost absent mindly speaking, "A journey to find one's self, if that makes sense?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:49 pm
"It makes perfect sense," replied Vara almost absentmindedly. "I consider my entire life to be one such journey. I admire greatly those who can find themselves quicker than I've been managing." She was silent for a moment, seeming to dwell and think longer on the concept.
"But, even if you can only glide, that's still much further off the ground than those of us who are wingless can expect to ever achieve." The last winged soquili she had met was Haya's father... and he was long gone. That was the benefit of having wings, flying to those you cared about or away from those you didn't.
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