Welcome to Gaia! ::

"What exactly are you trying to tell us Master?"

Of course, she just had to ask that. The dark unicorn thought moodily, looking down his long nose at his two damnably preceptive pupils. The first one, also the more petite of the two, was looking up at him with her bright blue eyes; those silly eyes with the bright shine he had never seen tarnished. Seresai was the pride of the Elderwillow soquili, and he truly felt honored to have been chosen by her father to teach her the way of the scholar, but that gleam had been both a blessing and a curse for the young filly. She always knew she was the princess, the watched...

So he, and her parents, had been mortally glad when the white and gold wind had befriended so fiercely the other young filly standing calmly at her 'sister's' side.

Of the two, it was this one he had had to really worry about. Seresai could be counted on to act rashly and often without thinking. But Wildfire, on the other hand, was the calm and conniving sort. Often she manipulated situations between those around her to benefit herself and Seresai. Naturally, it eventually became embarrassingly obvious that he was the best one to teach her since he was known to be the most unpredictable adult in the camp. These days though, it was all he could do to stay one step ahead of the youngling.. as was obvious by this little meeting.

Which, by the way, he hadn't planned.


Their last session had been a full moon ago, and he had thought he had kept the growing unease in his soul from showing. Flame had asked him once if he was alright, but he and the elder stallion of fire were long time friends, and he had felt comfortable with explaining only that dreams troubled him, and he felt he needed to work through them alone. The tall chestnut had watched him for a moment, much the same way his daughter now watched him, but unlike Wildfire, her sire had reluctantly nodded and resumed star gazing; leaving him to his own thoughts.

In retrospect, he probably should have guessed that his students were the ones who knew him best, because they had sought him out today, while he was on his way to the great Sequoia tree by the Kawani village. Initially, he wasn't sure why he felt the need to seek the advice of the gnarly old spirit that resided there, now though, he thought he might have a handle on it.


These unease of the mind, it wasn't really something he could just meditate on and set aside for the day.


The dream from last night still haunted him, as dreams often did, by leaving ghostly traces overlaid on everyday objects. For instance, the great mountain range to the north looked eerily familiar to the dark gates of the dead city he had thought was only in his head.


Then again, when had anything ever just been in his head?


Outwardly he sighed at the thought.


"Master Toujours!" Wildfire whinnied, stomping her hoof to bring his attention to her. Startled, he did, finally remembering that the pair had asked him a question. Well fine, he'd lay it out clear as day for them.


"I'm not trying to tell you anything my dearlings, you are merely incapable of deciphering the meaning behind my words as I had thought I had taught you! Really, what have you two been doing this past month? growing cottontails in your ears?" He huffed, smiling behind the dark mask of patronly rage. " I said I was on my way to speak with the spirit that supposedly inhabits that ugly old tree by the two-leggers village.. Now if you don't mind I'd like to continu-" He stopped when confronted by the hard glares of both young mares, both obviously unbelieving and not at all impressed with his story.


Trouble was... it was true.


"You are off to womanize again aren't you! Well you won't get a lady friend without us around anyway so why won't you just agree to let us come with you!" Seresai snapped, and he honestly couldn't tell if she was disgusted with what she thought was the truth, or with the fact that he hadn't outright told her this supposed truth.

Damn that rumor anyway.


Looking at them both, he had to smile, they were both so young, and so very naive to the world.. since he could only teach them so much. The rest, they just had to experience.


Well fine then.


"Whatever, come along if you wish, just don't choke on your righteous indignation when it comes flying back down your throats."


As usual, they were not at all phased by his words, so he just stomped off, certain they would follow.

Martin stalked through the undergrowth of the forest near Grandmother Sequoia's grove. His eyes glinted in the darkness, waiting for a movement, a sign, anything. It had been 3 days since he had attacked his herdmate Katrina. Since then, he had gone from horror, to brooding, to saddness, and now to darkness. Since he had already comitted an irriversable crime, there was no point in fighting what was happening to him. He had seeped into darkness, into cruelty. But somewhere, someone inside him cried out for redemption, to clean his soul of this taint, but that would come with time, and time was always passing right on by.

Dustin flew casually over the lands below him. The wind was a bit crisp with the hint of the season to come. He had left early that morning before everyone in his herd was awake. No one would really miss him, this he knew. They were used to his coming and going. He was agitated this morning and he wasn't sure why. Something was coming and or going to happen. He was sure if he would get involve in whatever it was or not either.

As he flew and looked down below and saw he was coming to Grandmother Sequoia's grove. He had flown this way many times before but never really landed in the grove and now, as he circled the grove, he could see a few Soquili below all heading there for some reason or another. It made him curious. He decided to circle a few more times and watch. His wings weren't tired yet and so he could stay in the air a bit longer.

It was time to move.
It was time to once again leave what he had...or rather, didn't have behind him and find something else to dwell on. He had been fighting for well, he couldn't quite tell anyone the true reason as to why he fought anything that got in his path, it would only down his spirit. His secret would be out and he'd be the laughing stock of the world.

Not likely, as bad parenting happened to many foals, but he refused to admit that his parents were horrible. The stallion would rather blame his cruelty on himself, as if he grew up in a herd of wild, barbaric creatures. He wanted his image to reflect what he knew was deep down inside him, urging to come out....but no opponent yet had given him the opportunity to do so. Had they not all been weak imbeciles, the fights would have surely been worth it, right? Of course! Although, any fight was worth fighting, he now wanted something that gave him pleasure. Beating up on lame stallions who thought they had power grew tiring.
Very tiring.

And Umojani'Jeuri, as he so graciously named himself after his parents abandoned him, wanted action. No, action wasn't good enough either, he needed to kill. Not like he hadn't before....there were times as a youngin' when he accidentally found himself the reason for another's death, but he learned from those mistakes and never repeated them. Death just proved to be almost too much for young eyes to witness, and so he stopped. Every victim that walked in his path had fallen close to death, but not all the way. Surely there would be unicorn's about to help heal the weak? And if not, well...Umo was far gone by the time the victim died.

So he never had to witness it anymore, until now. Life grew utterly boring with the same routine and the stallion longed to watch it.

Hoofs hit the floor with such force as he dragged his large body along, that it could almost appear as though he was trying to draw attention to himself, but it wasn't true...he hated anything and everyone, for much to the typical ability, they all annoyed him. It was simply just the way he taught himself to walk, and he liked it.

Now Umo had no idea where his legs were taking him, but he trusted them to lead him to business. The next job to be done, the next fight to be fought, he'd definitely be there! And it was then that he heard voices very near him, and sank back into the protection of the trees. The loud hoof steps sided, and his ears went up and over in the direction of the voices. They all...seemed to be arguing, pathetic little creatures willing to pass perfectly good travel-time with petty insults. And there were two sets, the further of the two seemed to be following the first set.

And that's what caught the stallion's attention. Two sets, two different times...was there to be a gathering? Well no point in letting the thought pass him by and missing out on a possible opportunity to fight...so the stallion sank deeper into the forest and followed in the direction the voices came from, hoping to find whatever it was they were approaching themselves.

He had no idea, nor heard of the stories of a talking spirit-like-tree, but if anyone were to believe what she'd say, it would of course been him....

Martin's ears flicked back and forth as he cautiously entered the clearing of Grandmother Sequoia. He glanced up at the sky, out of the corner of his eye he had seen a shadow. A low growl subsided in his throat, and he glared at the clearing, remaining in the undergrowth. Someone else was here, up in the sky. Martin retreated back farther into the tree's, his eyes glowing in the sparse light that filled this part of the forest.

Approaching the secluded grove unnoticed had just started to become annoying when Seresai made matters all the worse by announcing at the top of her lungs, as was her fashion, that Toujours had indeed lied to them and he was off to womanize. Why else would there be so MANY strange scents on the wind.. along with a recognizable odor that, too Wildfire, smelled strongly of her sister Sunfire.

Heaving a large, and silent, inner sigh, the dark unicorn paused to glance around him almost suspiciously, wondering if everything was just in his head.. and likely in the heads of the five or so soquili that appeared to be in his general vicinity. Realistically, given the sheer number of soquili that inhabited the region, it was possible that those around him had spontaneously decided to journey to this locale at the exact same moment he did. Or perhaps his One God had something to do with it... Though if he thought about that a little more, he remembered that he hadn't any use for companions during his meditative moments so why would his Sovereign Lord do such a dreadful thing? Naturally this twisted mental logic led him to the conclusion that something was in the water.


Or over the horizon...


Subconsciously, he shivered as remnants of that dreadful dream surfaced and once again blew an icy cold breath down his spine. Seresai was oblivious, since she was intent on trying to spot one of the so-far hidden visitors to Grandmother Sequoia's grove, while Wildfire whickered a greeting to her actual blood sister and bid her over.

Oddly energized by not having the attention of the two mares on him, Toujours trotted the remaining distance and cleared the last of the underbrush surrounding the little shaded grotto of the great tree spirit. Whatever the rest were thinking, he would speak with the spirit of the trees and see what fortunes she had to tell.

Blossomforth was in a hurry. What it was that put the pep in her step, she couldn't rightly say, but she wasn't taking the time to question it. With a breeze tugging at her mane and tail, it was hard to ignore. Blossom wasn't good at ignoring much. Curiosity, she'd been scolded for as a filly, wasn't always necessarily a good thing. Not that lectures had slowed her down.

Not any more than the memory of them slowed her down today. And when she heard the sound of others milling around, well, that settled it. She was going to find out where the flutters in her stomach were coming from. Maybe she'd just caught the odd whisper on the wind that something was happening and followed that here.

Certainly there were enough other Soquili to make things interesting. Why, there was that gorgeous unicorn again. And goodness, all the wings...

"My goodness. Good morning!"