[PRP] Someone [Ean x Orea]

[Huroggmeten]

The stallion strode through the forest, cloven hooves propelling him forwards towards an unknown destination. He didn't know why he moved... it felt good. He needed the exercise. He didn't want to be where he had been any more. The wanderlust that spurned him to keep moving had trickled down through his family line, a phantom whisper that tugged at a few each generation. He had no true home, though if home was where the heart is.... well, he had no true home. He loved his mother, he had never formed an opinion on the father he did not know... and truth be told he did not know his brother well either. He had no reason to stay in any place, nothing tugging him back towards any one location. He was just moving, purely and simply to move.

He moved with little regard for what was in his path, stepping around the most fragile saplings but brushing straight through taller shrubs. They were heartier, capable of withstanding more. He did not intend to hurt them, for he was not a malicious being- but neither would he skirt around them. His body had little effect on the hardened wood. Some trees shed an occasional piece of bark, but he knew that the insects would not harm the tree... it would form some sap or resin and protect itself. Nature was hardy like that.

Maybe some day he'd find what he was not looking for. Something to hold him, something to guide him. Something... someone? to call Home.

He blinked, pausing in his stride, then shook off the thought.

As if he were so special to find someone... someone like that.
 

[Hyperthymesia]

The dainty mare wove her way through the trees, her cloven hooves seeming to caress the ground beneath her as she skirted carefully through the forest. She admired all that was around her, a soft sigh escaping her as she admired the beautiful landscape.
Could anything be so stunning?

Her ears flickered as the wind brought a sound that did not belong to this forest. Crack...RRRRshhh... she winced at the noise. It was a sound she knew too well, that of a large creature devastating the land. "Something fallen! Ah, gentle forest, please do not be harmed!" her melodic voice wavering with emotion as she increased her pace.

Though she hurried now, to see if aught could be done to stop the encroachment, she was as careful as ever to leave little trace of her path behind her. Her efforts were not to prevent others from tracking her footsteps, rather to avoid leaving even the trace of her dainty hoof in the ground as she moved on.
As little lasting impact as possible, though her very existence left an impact. She had not quite worked out how to reconcile her survival instincts with her desire to preserve nature in its undisturbed state.

A distortion of the wind? Perhaps the destruction is not so bad... Her ears were sensitive, and this would not be the first time her genuine concern had lead to an exaggeration of the severity of an event. She held on to that hope as she moved towards the source of the sound.
 

[Huroggmeten]

Ean moved on, muscular yet lean shoulders tightening to take a blow of a tree trunk he deemed strong enough to stand. It would take just as much effort to move around it... but what did it matter, one way or another? He could take a beating. He was sturdy, thought not as sturdy as that oak... he winced slightly. His youth still lent him a certain illusion of invincibility, though he knew well of his own mortality. Well. He wasn't dead yet.

He didn't have any true friends, either. He had some good buddies as a foal, but they had grown apart... fallen in love, started a family, lost touch when they moved. Usually he was at fault for the latter- not bothering to contact those he once knew, or return to the place they had met. Come to think of it... even if someone did want to contact him, they probably couldn't find him. It was not as if he always hung out in the same forest...
There had been girls... well, fillies. Doe-eyed fillies. He winced at that, something that caused him greater pain than the physical blows he took haphazardly: he didn't want a relationship with them. They fell for him, his charm or his charisma (he didn't know what they saw in him, honestly, but those were words a friend of his had used to attempt to describe the roguish stallion's rugged good looks)... they indicated that they may want something more. And he was forced to stammer through a let's-be-friends speech that left them hurt... but he knew that the hurt would only grow as time go on. For them, if he never returned their affection.... Or for him, if he grew to love a mare whose sweet face hid a soiled soul, whose essence was not pure, who saw him as a passing entertainment and nothing more... did he turn away from friends, potential lovers, even his own family for fear or hurting them or for fear that they would hurt him?
He snorted.

He didn't know why these thoughts were spinning around his head. Perhaps, if he kept moving, they would leave him alone.

He slowed down slightly to eye a large fallen log that lay in his path. Enough time had passed that a thin layer of moss had formed on its bark... perhaps he would not disturb this thing.

He closed his smokey eyes, and took a leap.
 

[Hyperthymesia]

Orea rushed through the forest, her golden eyes swimming with concern.

Though if the noise had marked the demise of living flora as she so feared, there was naught else she could do but mourn its passing. She lamented any loss of life, though she understood the cycle of nature- one must pass for another to arise, for nutrients that were locked in the form of one being were released upon death to nurture another.

She came upon a fallen log, and she moved near, inspecting it for signs of decomposition with quick movements of her eyes- the forest floor had welcomed the bark already, a carpet of moss working steadily to produce oxygen while decomposers worked away at the moss's newfound home; this could not be the result of the sound she had heard... could her ears have played tricks on her?
So focused was the gentle mare on the fallen log that her eyes glanced upwards only in time to see twin grey orbs moving closer, framed in white and shades of brown.

Her lips opened to draw in a startled breath, her eyes grown wide with surprise. So focused was she on the recipient of the noise-making that she had forgotten that a large creature must have been present to create such a resounding sound. She suspected, quietly, in those moments that seemed to stretch into eternity as her mind processed the scene directly above and in front of her, that this had been the source of the noise- the owner of those grey eyes, so pale as to be almost white, locked on hers in this moment of impending collision.
She was passive in most things, it was true, but so close- with so little time, despite the illusions of one's mental processings- there was naught she could do but... stand.
 

[Huroggmeten]

His nostrils flared as his smokey eyes opened; something seemed...

Oh.
OH...!

He winced, a flurry of frantic thoughts rushing through his head. To leap without looking! Such was the action of a fool. He wished he his eyes had remained open, for then there might have been time to alter his path mid-flight, but wishes were useless things that never seemed to bear any fruit.

Golden eyes peered at him, widened in surprise. It was no wonder, for he had appeared suddenly in his flight from thought and reflection!

Scolding himself silently, he threw himself to the side in a last frantic effort to avoid impact; he did not mind pitting himself against a solid oak, but crashing into this dainty mare made him flinch inwardly. Not for his own safety, but for her own.
He glanced back at those golden eyes, at the delicate face and luscious curls that framed her gently piercing gaze.

Time seemed to stand still as their bodies were brought nearer, despite his best efforts.
I'm sorry, his smokey eyes seemed to plead, a frantic apology that arose from remorse. He was a stallion of action, always acting first and thinking later, and perhaps that was why he believed he could outrun his mind. He was right, in some ways, for there is a mental clarity to be had when the body is pushed to new heights... but no matter what, unless he faded from exhaustion as the adrenaline of his flight faded to leave nothing but darkness behind, his mind would always catch up. He was the union of his mind and body, not one or the other, and without the mind the body could not function.
He understood the need for thought, but when those thoughts were painful or seemed to swirl endlessly without conclusion it was so tempting to just run away...

But, now, his avoidance had a cost. How injured would this dainty mare be, when their bodies hit?
 

[Hyperthymesia]

Orea flinched, her head turning away at the last moment as his wrenched to the side. The stallion had managed to get the bulk of his neck out of the way, his body just starting to turn as his sturdy shoulder collided with the mare's chest.

The blow knocked the air from her lungs, her mouth framing a silent gasp as the impact propelled her backwards. Her haunches slid in the dirt, cloven hooves scraping the soil she had so carefully avoided marking only moments before. Her smaller form could not meet the force of the sheer weight gliding into her; her pectoral muscles would be bruised, at least. She fought to regain her breath, blinking rapidly as her mind processed and carefully cataloged the last few seconds.

She had seen such sorrow in his eyes, preceded by shock. She found herself concerned for him, even as her own ribcage expanded in an attempt to draw in much-needed air.
Had his flight been in earnest? Would a predator soon come upon them, its prey halted by another tasty morsel? Was he trying to outrun inner demons, the likes of which could not harm his flesh but could tear his soul apart? It was not her right to contemplate the source of the stallion's stampede through the forest, though she supposed that since their lives had quite literally collided it gave her some... leeway.

Her golden eyes followed the path of her flickering ears as she glanced back at her scuffed hind legs, more concerned with the trail she had left through the soil than the possibility of injury to herself. She glanced frantically through the pile of dirt on either side, looking for any poor saplings that had been uprooted by her unceremonious slide- but there were none.
She blinked again, dizzy as her lungs drew in air and her body sought recovery.

She wondered absently what the sound that had inspired her own movements had been after all, since the rotting log had clearly not been the source. She peered back to the forest path where the stallion had emerged from, squinting around for some sign of damage to the forest while she swayed precariously, most of her weight supported by her haunches.
 

[Huroggmeten]

Ean continued his desperate attempt to alter his course, throwing himself backwards as he glided off to one side to avoid falling on her. His ability to alter his course was limited, though, both by his speed and by his lack of traction against the air, and so he felt his shoulder crush into the mare's chest as he flung the rest of his body to the side. With a moment's worry, he used the impact to propel himself further to the ground, away from her and hopefully limiting the damage of his careless leap.

If it had only been himself, he would not have cared. He had no death wish, but neither did her care overmuch if he caused himself pain. He could accept blows stoically, whether they were self-inflicted or originating in the cruelty of others. But to harm another.... this, he could not accept.

But he had already harmed her... smokey eyes stared in concern as he felt himself land on the ground, his body falling heavily against the log as his legs folded beneath him and he fell hard on his knees. He watched her carefully, ignoring the sting of his fall as he pleaded to any higher beings that may be listening (if they existed, for he found himself doubting any higher power even as he hoped that one was there...) that she had not been too greatly harmed.

He watched as she fought for breath, as she gazed into his eyes with concern and then seemed to become frantic while she searched the ground behind her. He watched, confused, wondering if his blow had addled her mind, as she seemed to breathe easier after looking at the ground. What had she been searching for? Damage? Was she more concerned with the forest than with her own safety...? And where did she look now, gazing so fervently behind him?

He began to stand carefully, trying not to bump her as he propped himself up on the log. He winced as his knee protested, and made a mental note to test the joint later.
"Are you alright?" He asked, his voice husky with earnest concern.
He wondered if this was her home... something he had never found, but which would more than explain her concern for the forest... if that was what her gaze indicated. He found himself upset again at his flight through the lands, wishing he had been more courteous and cautious.
His own shortcomings should never be the cause of harm to another- unintentionally or not.

As he waited for her response, he was struck once more by her tender beauty. Her golden eyes, the cascading curls and the earthen tones... and he, the big oaf, had harmed her.
He looked away, ashamed.

"I'm sorry."