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 Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:07 am
 Caterpillar-green hooves crunched tirelessly into the frozen ground, the grass brittle with cold and flaking apart at the slightest pressure, steps leaving a trail of destruction that traced from one end of the meadow to the other. Fenggan observed the phenomenon peripherally, ears twitching forward and back in sudden motions, listening for his father's low, solemn tone or his sister's carefully metered out laughter. Aside from the subtle noises he produced with each step, the area was silent, still early enough in the morning that few creatures were stirring from their beds, most bleary eyed and unwilling to face bright sunshine. He had somehow been separated from his family a few hours back, a realization that amounted to a negligible gathering of apprehension beneath his breastbone, gaze sweeping the terrain one last time to confirm. His footprints were the only set that melted the thin layer of rime on the earth, as if he were the last living thing on the planet that neither flew nor scurried well beneath the surface. It was peaceful in a sense, but somehow off, the foal used to the noise and activity of a nomadic lifestyle. That the scenery mimicked his mood was novel.
Tilting his head back, he paused to consider the fading moon as it faced off its glowing sun-twin, black tail flicking with something that would have been restlessness in another colt. Logic told him that the best thing to do would be to wait for someone to come looking, and that running in circles was only hindering that objective. But the chill was already giving way to puffs of steam that threatened to become a full fog, and even standing out in the open would not grant easy sight if he was wrapped in the thick of it. His chin dropped slightly to consider a nearby outcropping of rock that jutted up above the sparse tree line, approaching it to see if perhaps it might afford him a better view.
It soon became clear that footing was treacherous on the slick slate, and his legs were still a little uncertain about the weight they supported, spanning somewhere between new and broken in. Still, Feng pushed forward with his head down, slipping a few times and skidding back along the slope, gaining ground in steady but difficult increments. Breathing between gritted teeth, he finally hauled himself up to the top, shaking droplets of condensation from his mane and taking in what he could from his vantage point. The trees were scattered until a distance out, where they began to congregate like black-furred bees around some unknown focal point, a hive hidden in the mist. At his flank stood further, familiar flatlands, their vastness empty and stretching on into something infinite, or at least beyond his capacity to understand. Despite his hurried upbringing, he still had yet to see much of what existed beyond his family unit: sister, brother, mother and father, all of them bound together by what felt like strangely loose ties. So he let himself indulge in the sprawling vision for a few minutes longer, jaws set and stern, but eyes roving with unyielding curiosity.
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2011 6:05 pm
 The night to the morning hours were Amakehs Olomamusikte's least favorite time of the day. She abhorred the cold that was brought by the setting of the sun. The feeling of cold would seize up her joints and chill her to the very core. It HURT to be cold, and by any means necessary, she would avoid it.
Currently, the foal was crawled up in a half-eaten corpse killed sometime the night before. The young filly made use of the slowly decaying body for a source of warmth and comfort. Since her body was poorly circulated, that meant that she could not circulate warmth around her body well. To fix that, she would have to find sources of heat, whether that would be taking up the heat from the sun, or heat from other sources.
Up until now, the young filly was snoozing the night away up to the very morning, not caring if she was wasting daylight. Her deep breathing caused the carcass to move up and down with her breathing, making it quite the odd picture for anyone else observing.
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Posted: Wed May 18, 2011 6:27 pm
Satisfied with the knowledge that he was well and truly alone on the plains, the foal hopped down from his perch, locking his knees before they could buckle on impact and send him sprawling. He huffed against the near-spill, a minor explosion rocking the visible air in front of his nostrils, every action imprinted on his surroundings. Mist curled along the snake-grass whorls on his legs when he walked, and his cropped tail involuntarily wiggled back and forth like rudder while he navigated half-heartedly back to the spot where he'd begun. This was not a good situation, and he knew it. His mother would be vocally unhappy about her youngest son wandering off without a word, accidental or otherwise, and he did not doubt his brother would be quick to seize upon the disapproval. He could handle both of them if it came down to it, but the possibility of confrontation still made his jaws clench.
Halfway to his destination, the wind changed its direction slightly, and Fenggan froze in place, muscles stiffening in surprise. There was a smell he had not noticed before, a whiff that stroked a rotten finger across his muzzle, teasing against his gritted teeth as he turned sharply upwind, seeking the culprit. What he had thought to be another pile of stone resolved itself slowly into something smoother, vapor pattering across it to be deflected when it heaved with movement. His ears flattened, flesh prickling as he gradually drew nearer, prepared to leap back if there was cause for it. The odor deepened despite the chill, turning oily and foul on his tongue. He coughed low in the back of his throat to avoid gagging outright, tucking his chin slightly and plodding forward.
What bare sunlight filtered through the haze painted itself over hunks of missing flesh, bared muscle and splintered bone peppering the frame. Its coat was streaked with reddish-brown, the ground around it wearing a similar shade from where it had bled out. Whatever it had been, it had once run on four legs, dun and snowy white beneath dried stains. Feng stared blankly at the mess, knowing that this was death on some instinctual level, though the implications were slow to register when it still appeared to be breathing. Strange enough to warrant a second glance, he surmised, despite being a largely unpleasant sight.
Stepping around the splayed body, the colt found that most of the soft features had been chewed from the thing's face, leaving its identity uncertain. Its belly had also been expertly slit, entrails apparently excavated, and he shuffled in place with slight discomfort when he spied the cloven edge of a rose-colored foot protruding from the inside. It was small, verging on petite, and completely out of place. Had it possibly been part of some last meal? His mother had warned him about the creatures that populated the land outside their migratory routes, vague descriptions of hooved monsters that wore the prickly pelts of other mammals, horned and winged things that craved flesh and lacked compassion. Whether they were stories intended to keep him in line, or if there was some truth to them, they flooded his mind now.
Fenggan almost turned away, even his iron stomach a little unbalanced by the stench. But through the holes where tissue had once wrapped around ribs, he spied something slick and black inside, like an engorged organ still trying to pump life into the cooling corpse. It was moving, steady and deliberate, an active mechanism in an otherwise dead instrument, and he felt his clinical inquisitiveness overwhelm his disgust. Nose wrinkling in thought, he lifted a hoof before he could reconsider, letting it hang for a second before nudging the carcass in askance.
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