Welcome to Gaia! ::

The first leg of his journey had been obvious. Who else would he go to except Yei? The mare he had known ever since he came into the soquili lands. Back then when he had Hotaru (No! He must not think about this! )Yei had been a vivacious scarlet mare with a passion of sorts for life. Thel wondered how the years had treated her and if she was the self same mare he had remembered and subconsciously lifted his hooves higher in the fashion of young stallions.

“Better not do that, it’s slippery here; this mountainous slopes,” said Elan gruffly from the pintabian’s back. Age had given Elan less flight time but more sarcasm than was deemed healthy for the bird. Thel found himself wondering at times about the lifespan of hawks and shuddered at the thought that one day…Elan might be no more.

“I said be careful!” screeched the hawk as the stallion nearly slipped on a loose stone. Blowing loudly through his nostrils, Thel watched as the solitary pebble tumbled down the mountain, dislodging a few unfortunate rubbles on its way down. “That was…close,” murmured Thel quietly as he peered over a ledge.

“You darn right it was! “ said Elan in a reproachful manner . “Honestly, is that mare really all that important? “

“Yei’s…a friend….,” mumbled the stallion quietly. “It’s…only…right,”

“Yeah? Then tell me why did ya left the others behind without a word? Is that right?”

“They…would not…understand…this is….something…I must…do,” said Thel, appearing breathless from the massive amounts of words spoken. “I…I…,”

“Alright, alright, I get you. You wanna say goodbye to your old pal Yei. Let’s get a move on then eh?” replied Elan, not unkindly to his friend. “Cold weather’s a pain in the bones…,”

“Thank you…Elan,”

“Don’t thank me, I still don’t see anyone about,” said the hawk as he flared his wings. “Be right back once I have scouted the area!”

“Al…right,” said Thel, glad for the rest. It had been many hours since the stallion had paused for a break. Fear of the younger herd members finding him was one; the desire to…be free was another.

Folding his legs beneath him on that narrow ledge, the tired stallion rested.

Thel watched as the distant figure of Elan circled the high mountains. Despite the hawk’s age, Elan still had sharp eyes and good coordination. A subtle shift of a wing here, a slight flaring of the tail there and the hawk was seen flying almost effortless across the wide chasms. Feeling slightly envious of his winged friend, Thel flicked his tail idly while he waited.


The mountain tops were being very sullen today. Elan could hardly find a single living thing about let alone a soquili. Swooping across a particularly narrow valley, the hawked flapped his wings a couple of times before emerging through the other side. There! There was someone there after all!

Giving a delighted cry, the brown hawk zoomed in on that singular being. Even from a distance it was obvious that that form was that of a horse plodding though the deep mountainous snow; giving it the impression of a formidable snow plough of sorts.

Alighting onto a withered snow covered branch, the hawk folded his wings and gave the stallion before him a critical look. Elan had known that black was often a deceiving colour but had not expected to be deceived this much. Why, this stallion was perfectly massive and the only reason his hoof beats were not heard was probably because of the thick snow. Wellm whatever. Perhaps this bulky thing would know something about Yei.

“Hey you!” screeched the red hawk in his typical haughty manner. “You seen a red mare about? Long hair, weird sense of humour?”

Elan cocked his head a little at the other’s reply. For one with such a large mass, the stallion sure talked softly. Perhaps the poor soquili had a sore throat or something. Stretching his wings languidly before folding them back, the red hawk uttered a sort of screechy laugh. “That so? Well, this particular mare should be pretty old by now. Heh, wouldn’t be surprised if she has a couple o’grandkids of her own by now on account of of time since we had last met. The mare I’m talking about would be Yei. You know her?” Once again the red hawk cocked its head to one side as it eyed the stallion with his sharp and arrogant gaze, the kind of gaze only possessed by creatures born with the confidence that they were the hunters and not the hunted.

“Nothin personal but there’s that friend o’mine who wants to meet her. We go waay back,” added the hawk after a while. “Only…this mountain…it’s too steep, see? And he’s not the young stallion he used to be yer know? Heh, none of us are if it comes to that,” said the hawk with a cynical laugh. “Neeways, the wind’s freezing my tail feathers and I’d appreciate it if you do know of her whereabouts. Elan’s my name by the way,”

Elan could not hide his surprise when the stallion called Yei the ‘alpha’. What? Had time really moved on that fast? The Yei that used to be so carefree and teasingly flirtatious (if only to drive Thel into a corner) had moved on to be an alpha? True, Yei was all that and more. The red mare had a certain underlying quality that made her someone you could talk to and seek advice from when needed but the hawk still found this bit of information rather surprising and not with a hint of envy. Thel had done nothing these past few years except… to retreat into himself even more, taking more time to answer questions directed at him and in short… cut himself off verbally from most. What reason the stallion had in meeting Yei was still lost to the hawk but Elan wasn’t Elan if he couldn’t bounce back twice as fast.

“Heh, doesn’t sound much like the Yei I used to know,” sniffed the hawk ungraciously. “But if that’s the only lead we have…”

Flaring his wings, the red hawk took off the snow covered branch and circled around the large stallion a couple of times. “Don’t move , y’hear? I’ll get Thel over as soon as I can,”

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Thel was thankful that the strong winds of the mountains weren’t blowing that day and stomped his hooves occasionally to keep the blood moving. Elan was taking a rather long time and the stallion wondered if perhaps his friend had been waylaid by a rabbit or some such prey. It wasn’t unusual for Elan to do that but the stallion flattened his ears all the same. As long as the hawk did not come back bringing a dead rabbit… Thel guessed he could grudgingly forgive his friend for the lateness.

A small but gradually enlarging speck in the air told the stallion of Elan’s return and Thel eagerly lifted his head in the hawk’s direction. “Well…?” said Thel once the hawk had landed on a stony outcrop. “Have you…seen Yei?”

“Nope, but I met a stallion who has,” said the hawk smugly. “He says that he’s able to show us the way if you’d meet him,”

“Alright…,” sighed Thel as the shook the snow out of his mane. “Lead me…to him,”