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 Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:39 am
The one-winged Bae snorted and nibbled at the grass underhoof. People were the same everywhere; appearance mattered. Trust his luck to find a group of people who didn’t care about his deformity, but loathed his colouring. It was better here than anywhere else he’d found so far, but it was no paradise. He was still, essentially, alone. His fellow warriors worked with him well in drill, doubtless they would fight well together too when the need arose but socialization was asking too much. Not that it mattered to him, of course, let the idiots keep their idiotic beliefs if it made them happy. He’d never needed anyone before, and he certainly didn’t need anyone now.
Scowling to himself, the white-eyed stallion tore up another mouthful of grass and chewed it viciously.
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Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 11:09 am
Turning her gaze from the chill mountains of Casa Tiner, her gold eyes focused on a purely black creature - save his hooves, mane, tail, and wings. Wait, scratch that last bit. Wing, singular. Well, how odd. She blinked and turned her head a bit, but no matter how she looked at him, he only had one. What happened to the other one? It didn't look like it had ever been there in the first place, so perhaps he was just born with one. Poor fellow. At least it hadn't been torn off or mutilated halfway through life; that would have been painful in more ways than one. A subject, obviously, not to bring up.
With a smile the small bae trotted over and paused a ways away; she didn't want to annoy him by getting too close. That, and his expression was clear now that she'd gotten closer - he seemed a bit irritated anyway. "Hi there," she offered with a small grin, and swiveled an ear towards him. Hopefully he was friendlier than how his expression made him look; perhaps something had crossed his mind to make him look so irritated. Hopefully.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:20 am
Karasu raised his head, still chewing, when the mare spoke; he’d heard her hoofbeats, but had assumed she’s pass him by. Not so, apparently. Not bothering to hurry his mouthful, the black stallion looked her over. She wasn’t dissimilar to him in colouring, but of course she had two wings. She was very... perky. Not a Hellene, unless standards had seriously slipped. Perhaps he’d wandered a bit over the border by mistake, or perhaps she had. Well, either way it didn’t matter; this one was no threat so far as he could tell.
Karasu swallowed the grass. “Hello there.” He ran his white eyes over the other Bae again and allowed himself a little sneer. “You’re not from around here, surely?”
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 9:45 am
Well, at least he didn't seem pissed or anything. That was a plus. "Nah," she replied with a shake of her head, "ah live right in th' middle of th' valley, but it's a bit crowded over there t'day." Normally crowds didn't bother her, but it seemed that the cooling weather was negatively affecting a few of D'ob's inhabitants, suddenly making them much more unpleasant than normal. "Thought ah'd wander over this way t'day. You from 'round here?"
It suddenly occurred to her that she hadn't the faintest idea which part of the valley she was in. Her bright eyes quickly flitted to various trees and other potential landmarks she could recognize, and a nagging feeling in the back of her mind told her she should know this place, she could almost remember why, but it flitted away and she forgot again. Oh well. Perhaps if he lived around here, something he'd say could jog her memory, so maybe she'd remember this time.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:03 pm
A center-valley softie. That fitted. A weird softie though; she wore some strange thing of human-make around her neck. He couldn’t imagine tolerating such an annoyance, but perhaps she thought it made her a bit more special than all the other ones like her.
“Yea,” Karasu said eventually, “I live here. You should watch yourself, it’s kind of private territory, you know.” Some Hellenes, more impulsive and thick-headed than he, might take her for a spy and attack her. They’d probably chase her off and give her a good nipping at the very least.
“So, who’re you then?” Might as well know her name, he supposed, she didn’t look like she was planning to leave too soon and he didn’t have the energy to chase her off. Besides, dim though she seemed she was at least being friendly to him and he could tolerate a little dimness for now. Not for too long though; after a while he was sure she would begin to grate. Grate more, that was; enough for him to bother with giving her something to remember Handrakai Hellene by. Not too much though; last thing he needed was to get himself in trouble with those higher up for thrashing someone who could turn out to be vaguely important in some other herd.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:19 pm
Private territory? Belonging to a herd, most likely - which was odd, he didn't seem the type to actually enjoy being in a herd. But what herd? The nagging feeling came back, flitting around with a hint of the name, but she just couldn't grasp it. Oh well.
"Mah name's Elsie," she offered with a slight nod, wondering why she had to watch herself. Were they hostile, then? Perhaps. Maybe hostile wasn't the right word, but... hostile..? Of course, how silly of her to forget. She'd met that nice herdleader somewhere near here. "What's yer name?"
Another glance around told her that, yes, it was near here that she'd met Meleager. Nice fellow, he was. "An', by private territory, ye mean th' Hellenes lands?" She hadn't noticed that she'd inadvertently wandered into their territory. Oh well, it wasn't like she'd get in any trouble for it, really.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:34 pm
The white-eyed stallion snorted; she knew and yet she was still bumbling around here? Idiot. Who did she think they were? The happy fuzzy love brigade? Finding another sour expression with ease, the black Bae shook his head slightly. “Karasu of the Gamma, and yes I mean the Hellene territories. Not many outsiders are stupid enough to wander our lands uninvited, you know. Those that do often meet with... unfortunate incidents.”
Was it possible that she had leave to be here? He couldn’t imagine anyone high up enough to give her permission would tolerate the perky little thing. That only left the possibility, again, that she was related to someone important that the ambassadors wanted to keep sweet. She didn’t look like she was of high standing, didn’t speak like it either. No. She was as common as he was in all probability, but far, far stupider. Unless of course some brash herd somewhere had odd standards of beauty and class. Still, either way, speaking to her was more pleasant than annoying right now. Sometimes it was good to hear his own voice, and hear it responded to no matter how foolish the words said were.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:51 pm
"Nice t' meet ye, Karasu," she offered with a polite, slightly lopsided smile, completely ignoring what might've been an insult and a threat. Neither seemed to bother her in the slightest; she'd dealt with worse before. "Incidents, hu? Sounds int'restin'. What kinda incidents are we talkin' 'bout?" She actually was vaguely curious about what sort of incidents he meant, but figured he'd get too peeved to answer. He did seem like the snippy sort, but oh well. She flicked her tail at an annoying fly, swiveling an ear a bit as she did so. Should she mention that she'd met the herdleader yet? ....nah, she could save that little tidbit for later.
While waiting for a response, she allowed her mind to wander a bit to the pale gray stallion. She couldn't help but wonder how he was doing, and if he'd managed to make more time for himself as of late than before. Everybody needed time to themselves once in a while, and she'd given him her two cents on the matter. It never occurred to her that a herd leader, especially one whose herd she wasn't a part of, might not want advice from a complete stranger. But, oddly enough, he seemed to appreciate it. At least, she thought so. She did hope he'd managed to make more time for himself.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:04 pm
Karasu pinned his ears back for a moment, snorting again and showing his teeth a little; could anyone seriously be this dumb? Was she really an intelligent mare? Was she just playing around for her own amusement? That would be even worse than simple brainlessness; he’d always hated falseness.
“Incidents like them getting maimed by soldiers they were annoying,” he snapped irritably, “incidents like them being eaten alive by the Master Tactician’s bodyguard for looking at him the wrong way.” So far as he knew, the scaled stallion hadn’t done that. Yet. Not here anyway; the freakish Reya freely admitted to liking the taste of Nequus as much as any other flesh he could get those fangs into.
“What do you want here anyway?” Karasu demanded after a moment. “Can’t be here for better grazing if you’re from deep D’ob.” Perhaps she annoyed her neighbors and had been driven off; if he’d lived nearby her he doubted he’d have put up with her for very long. Perhaps she was, Gods help him, an explorer. She’d probably try to tell him about all the fascinating places she’d visited if she was, and the last thing he wanted to hear about was Her Charming Trip to Quirne. She’d probably go on for half a sun about all the different pretty shells she found, and then for the rest about the pincher-beast that had nipped her nose when she bent to investigate it. Daft b***h.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:20 pm
The gray mare flicked an ear, studying his response. "Ah, m'kay," she replied, stifling a yawn. Nothing too interesting, save the mention of a bodyguard eating nequus. What sort of thing was he, that he actually ate nequus? Either he was some sort of monstrous creature that she'd never heard of before, or that was a heap of drek. And, oh dear, he didn't seem too happy anymore. Oh no, whatever shall she do. Besides stifle the urge to yawn again.
"What do ah want?" Hu. Odd question, but, on second thought, perhaps it wasn't. "Nothin', really. Jus' wanderin' 'round. Th' valley's fulla jerks today, cuz nobody likes th' chill in th' air. Not even cold, either," she snorted, flicking both ears back a little bit. She honestly didn't know why the cooling weather made some nequus act like they had a stick shoved somewhere unpleasant.
She figured he was just a simple soldier, despite the fancy title he gave with his name, and so she didn't really worry too much. Not like he could command a bunch of nequus to come and assault her. If he could, well, he'd need a better reason than just 'she was annoying me.' Yeah, saying that would certainly entice them to come and attack her on his behalf.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:36 pm
She was unconcerned. Completely. He had been perfectly candid and yet... Interesting. She didn’t look like a fighter, but clearly she felt safe enough here. She still made him want to grind his teeth though, whatever she was. It was the voice; he’d never been able to stand accents like hers. There were, of course, plenty of things he couldn’t stand but voices like hers were one of them all the same and he wasn’t any less annoyed by it than he would be were it his only pet peeve.
“The valley is always full of jerks,” Karasu said eventually, twitching his single wing unconsciously. Bastards always looked at him with such benevolent pity and tried to get him to accept and elppa they’d already bitten into, probably only in the hopes of impressing their beau with their great big heart. Like he wasn’t capable of damn well getting food himself, the bastards. Snorting, Karasu twitched his wing again and turned his attention back to Elsie. If intimidation wasn’t going to work he’d have to think of some other way to make her leave. In the interim he might as well give her his opinion on people in general.
“The valley,” he went on, “is full of stuck up, thick-headed, fakes. They act all sweet and friendly, but only to make themselves look good. In the end all they give a Rit-drek about is getting the best fruit to eat, the most influential mate to get even better things for themselves, and the most attractive lover to distract them from how much they hate their mate. The valley is sickly sweet, and most of the people in it are rotten to the core.” Was she? Maybe. Maybe she’d come here hoping to worm her way into the warrior herd to sigh over all the handsome warriors, notably not himself. Still, she didn’t really seem it. Dumb, but not rotten. Still difficult to tolerate, but better by a little than some sycophant.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:50 pm
Elsie yawned, tired of holding them back at this point. Hu, that was entertaining. He'd tried to intimidate her, to scare her with a glare and the threat of teeth. But, as he made no move to actually attack - indeed, he'd even relented to talking once more - that's all he was. Just someone who tried to scare others off through intimidation, but not one for actual violence unless it was necessary. Thankfully, none of that worked on her in the least. She was glad for that. "Well, that's yer opinion an' yer entitled t' it," she started, flicking her tail. He was probably that bitter and short-tempered due to having one wing. Or maybe he was just naturally that way; some nequus were.
"Ah don' think all've 'em are that bad, though there are a few that could use an attitude adjustment." Like someone else she could mention. "An' ah agree - there're some nequus like that, but not just in th' valley, they're ever'where. But there are some that truly care 'bout others, though they're just harder t' find than th' jerks." She leaned down to rid herself of an itch on her foreleg, then straightened up and studied Karasu very, very carefully. "So, 'bout that bodyguard ye mentioned b'fore.. Does he really eat nequus?" She narrowed her bright eyes, trying to figure out if there really was such a thing, or if he was just lying, trying to scare her. She didn't normally question some things, but if this was true, well, she had to see this thing. "What kinda nequus is he, if he eats other nequus?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:01 pm
Yawning again. He hated her for that, and hated himself for allowing letting it make him feel small. What did he care what she thought? She was just some dumb b***h wandering where she shouldn’t. Perhaps she’d leave him alone if he told her about Ignatius; she seemed fond of danger. Maybe this time she would get bitten for for her curiosity. Viciously he hoped so, hoped she got bitten somewhere painful and that it festered and she died months later in fever and agony. She was just standing there yawing at him. b***h; b***h just like the rest of the world.
“He’s some sort of mutant Reya,” Karasu said, sliding from snappishness to dull indifference. “Scales instead of a coat, one big thick tail with a spike on the end, spikes all down his spine, teeth like a Rit. As to eating Nequus, I gather he’ll take whatever sort of meat he can get.” Turning away from the grey mare, Karasu flicked his tail, contriving to look bored by her. “Maybe you should go look for him,” he suggested, “I’m sure you’ll find him a lot more interesting than you do me.” b***h.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:19 pm
Well, that certainly sounded quite... well, ridiculous. She couldn't tell if he was lying or telling the truth. He certainly seemed to be truthful, but she knew he was annoyed with her and that made her suspicious anyway. She'd ask Meleager about this mutant reya the next time she saw him. "Hu," she snorted, eying him again as he turned away. Poor pitiful Karasu, insulted and irritated because he thought that he bored her, from the sounds of it. "Yea, perhaps ah will go seek him out, a scaley reya'd be a lot more interestin' than a short-tempered bae," she offered as she trotted off in no particular direction. There were many things she could've said instead, but she didn't really feel like completely insulting the stallion. It wasn't his fault he only had one wing, after all.
Still, she figured she should have at least some definite direction in mind, but since she hadn't any idea what the layout of the Hellenes' lands were, she couldn't exactly do much more than pick a random direction and stick with it. Oh well, perhaps she'd fine Meleager this way. That was how she'd found him before, just by wandering around. She was lost then, and in essence she was lost now, so hopefully she'd get the same results.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 3:26 pm
He watched her go for all of a moment before returning to his grazing. She was inconsequential. He’d forget her name by tomorrow, and all about her not long after. Flicking and ear, the black Bae tried to return to the mostly relaxed mood he’d been in before the b***h mare had arrived. It wouldn’t come. Growling to himself, Karasu raised his head and turned to check which direction she was going. Once he had that figured out, he turned away and set off in the opposite direction. So much for enjoying his day off.
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