[PRP-LOG] A Midnight Hunt [Gansey x Gypsy Winter]

[Novablu]

Self RP between Novablu's Gansey and Gypsy Winter :3

 

[Novablu]

Gansey was born for the darkness. The way the night wrapped around her, invisible fingers brushing against the feathers of her wings. The way the moonlight cradled her, easing the day’s worries into complete solace. The touch of dappled light through the forest as she stalked her prey with eyes that saw well even in the blackest of nights. Of course this was a given--she’d been born into a herd who called themselves gargoyles--creatures of the night--and Gansey was the best of the best. Eldest daughter of the leaders of Nocturne, she’d been named crown princess the day she popped from her basket. All her life, she’d had this giant weight on her shoulders that a filly shouldn’t have to carry--she was her mother’s pride and joy, her father’s sunshine, and yet… Something about the idea of stifling herd life made her rebel.

She’d sweettalked her twin brother Sebastian into flying the coop with her. It wasn’t that she disliked her family, or even her supposed role in life, she just… Yearned for bigger things. Freedom to come and go as she pleased. The ability to chose a mate of her own liking instead of one to carry on her blood. A smile curved her lips up to the point where a flash of sharp fang showed, but it didn’t look ominous…just impish. Gansey wasn’t a killer--okay, rabbits and deer didn’t count. She just appeared bigger and badder than she actually was.

Under the pallid light of the moon, Gansey hunted.



X


Gypsy Winter was no stranger to the darkness, although his bloodline ran back to pure angeni blood. He carried one set of wings, too large to be mistaken for a wind, to bear his ancestry…and it wasn’t something he was proud of. All of his life he was the black sheep. His sisters were pure and innocent and perfect little princesses and Winter was…not. Winter was the one who watched the shadows with a keen eye, his heart aching to be freed from its prison--even though the prison bars were only in his mind. He’d run from his too-happy family. He’d flown away and for the longest time, he never went back. He spent weeks with a pair of kalona hybrids; he’d traversed the ruins that the fire and the great flood had created; he’d walked among the dead to find the living. Death, darkness--they didn’t bother him. It was almost a small comfort, as if the unknown could reach out and hold his heart in gentle hands. For the longest time, he hated himself.

Things were changing. Despite the fact that he swore he’d never find love, he found it--in the claws of not one, but two hippogriffs. Daleson was…everything he could’ve asked for. His rock in hard times. The gentle soul who lifted Winter’s spirits and soothed the pains of the past away. Dale was his protector.

And then there was Gansey… Half kalona, she walked the earth with ample amounts of pride, vanity, and sass. They didn’t get along at first--she was careless with her words, he rose to the bait too often, and it would end in an argument that Daleson would always diffuse. But lately…

X

She knew she had a tagalong. She’d known it for the past three miles, despite the way she slid through the shadows, a being of grace, forged by the hunger gnawing at her gut. Sure, with the griff blood running through her veins, she COULD eat grasses and berries and--yuck. Gansey let out a noiseless laugh as the thought of a warm-blooded animal squeezed between her fangs came to mind. No, she liked hunting, she liked the thrill of the chase, way too much to ever give it up for good. Her wings were tight against her sides as she moved in an easy lope, her curled hair flowing behind her. She really should’ve had a native cut it… It was long and sometimes bothersome and it got bloody and tangled but… Well, she was gorgeous and it only added to her allure. A fanged smirk appeared on her face.

Her ears flicked back, focusing on the stallion keeping close on foot; light hoofsteps with a gentle grace. No wing-flapping, no soft crackle of electricity. Slowing to a stop, she turned and gazed through the trees to find her Winter not very far from where she stood. He was beautiful, innocent in a way only angeni could be, though his snarky tongue distracted from that aspect. She also knew he preferred Daleson’s company over her own. Which made her curious to why he would be following her. Strange little bird. “I can hear you,” she softly sang to the darkened forest, claws squeezing earth beneath her. “My little stalker…”

X

A small smile graced Winter’s lips as he paused, lifting his head to take in the scents of one of his mates. It wasn’t often that he’d leave Daleson behind, but there was something in the air tonight. Something that said he should join Gansey. He knew she was hunting--she always hunted--but it wasn’t like he wanted to join her. Like she’d share. “Caught me,” he murmured, loud enough to know she could hear him. He tilted his head, silvery bangs falling over his left eye, and then struck forwards.

“Thought that maybe you’d want some company,” he said, one silvery eye watching her every move, though he was hardly alarmed. She might’ve been half kalona, but despite her moodswings, Gansey wasn’t evil. She was like him, a little misunderstood, with a crown placed on her head when she wanted nothing of the sort. She might’ve been a princess, but at least she wasn’t angeni.

“What’s up with you lately?” he asked as he fell into step beside her. She looked at him, her pale blue eyes almost glowing under the moonlight. She flicked her hair and slid forwards, slippery as an eel, but he wasn’t one to lose. He eased into a lope after her; she was larger than him by a good three inches, but he was fast and soon he stood in front of her, hooves planted against the ground.  

[Novablu]

She stood there against the bitter wind, but as her mate spoke--what was wrong?--she felt the chill go through her to the bone and her smile faded into nothingness. She watched him, her pallid eyes suddenly intense and filled with emotion. She leapt forwards, claws burying into the hard earth, making it pebble around her hooves. She jerked to a stop before Winter, ears flat against her skull, her hair wild as she tossed her head. Anger washed off of her, built by frustration. “You wouldn’t understand,” she murmured, pulling away before he could touch her, before he could comfort her--she didn’t need comfort. She needed… She needed to hunt. “If you’re tagging along, then keep up.” She snorted, flicked her tail, and sulked off into the woods.

Truth was? She wasn’t sure WHAT was wrong, exactly. She just felt this feeling of unsettledness, the churning in her gut warning her that something was wrong and she needed to fix it… Except she didn’t know how.

x

She was in his face, wings flared, the hooked tips of them gleaming in the moonlight, but Winter didn’t flinch. He’d been postured at many times, bitten and kicked and scratched by the set of kalona he used to hang around with--he’d been drawn to them like a moth to a flame, intrigued by the danger and the deadliness that they possessed, traits that he admired in both mares and stallions alike. But he’d found that the world could be far crueler than he’d expected. In the end, he’d returned to his home in the valley, to his parents who’d been worried sick about him. Gansey didn’t scare him. She concerned him, with the emotions flaring in her eyes, she made him want to help her…except he knew Gansey didn’t want or need his help. So damn independent. His heart panged for her, a sudden yearning driving through him like wildfire. She was hot when she was angry…

“Keep up. Gotcha.” He bobbed his head in agreement and followed after her at a quick pace, his wings pressed against his body as they slunk through the woods in search of dinner--for her at least.

X

He kept up--she knew he could. He might not’ve been the strongest angeni to walk the lands, but he was small and fast and streamlined. And quiet. You’d think that someone without the skills of a hunter would amble through the woods, chaos underfoot in his wake, but Gypsy Winter was damn near silent as he moved alongside her. Slowly but surely, the anger ebbed away. He shouldn’t have been the one hunting with her, and maybe that was her problem. The fact that while she’d found two thirds of her soul…her missing half--her twin--was gone. She bit back the wave of pain at Sebastian’s memory, fighting away the emotion she’d rather not feel.

Then she stilled, nostrils flaring as she caught sight of a small herd of does led by a single, ten-point buck. They were young and healthy; she could smell them even at a distance and her stomach rumbled. Winter had gone silent beside her, but she could feel him watching her. “You wanna help?” she whispered, soft as velvet, quirking a brow. “I want the buck. I’ll take the left, you take the right. Herd them towards me and I’ll take care of the rest.” She grinned, fangs flashing in the darkness.

X

Gypsy Winter was no stranger to the art that was hunting, and Gansey was one of the best. He’d watched her in the past, trying to figure her out, trying to see what Daleson saw in her. And finally he was seeing it, that fiery passion in her heart and soul that made her Gansey, the spirit that roared through her, wild and free and sassy. He smiled at her, a real smile, and gave a nod. “I’m on it,” he said. This was a test. She was testing him, but he wouldn’t fail. Moving swiftly, he swept a right and angled his body towards the small herd, who were grazing. The buck lifted his head, as if alarmed for a moment, but an angeni wouldn’t smell of danger. Winter was harmless to them.

Gansey was not. Silvery eyes narrowed on the buck with the forked antlers, he watched as Gansey came from the shadows opposite him. This time the buck reacted, rearing up and bellowing. Winter lurched forwards, shoulder to shoulder with the young creature, barely missing the swing of antlers.

He shoved with his shoulder, knocking him off balance, and the next thing he saw was the flash of fangs and the bright smell of blood as Gansey clamped her jaws around the buck’s throat, swinging him to the left to snap his neck. Powerful, amazing, beautiful work… Winter stood as the buck’s breath escaped in a hiss and he went limp. He watched blood bead from the neck of the stag, flowing onto the ground. Blood didn’t bother him. Not much did, after all.  

[Novablu]

The thrill of the hunt, however short, was invigorating as adrenaline pulsed through the hippokalona’s body, her breathing short and rapid and excited, pupils mere pinpricks as the taste of the buck’s blood fell over her tongue like sweet surrender. She shook her head, his throat still clenched between her teeth, just to feel the dead weight of him fall beneath her. Slowly, she dropped him and then stepped back to admire their handiwork. The buck lay still and silent on the forest floor, glossy eyes staring up empty at her. She smiled, looking up at Gypsy Winter, who looked completely unbothered by the heat of the moment. “You’ve done this before,” she said, tipping her head to one side, looking at him almost in a new light.

He was beautiful and slender, he always had been, but maybe she’d seen him as weak before. Not an equal. But he was gazing down at the kill with something gleaming in his eyes--not hunger…but appreciated, adoration, and that startled her. “Winter.”


X

He stood bathed in the darkness of the woods, the slain buck sprawled out between his hooves and Gansey’s claws, its eyes gaping up empty at the sky…but he didn’t feel remorse. He probably should’ve--he was angeni-blooded, his mother’s line filled with protectors, strong and calm and capable. But that wasn’t who he was--it wasn’t who he’d ever been. He was just Gypsy Winter, the stallion who preferred fangs and claws, pain and passion, and the thrill of the chase. Slowly, his lips turned up in a grin. “I’ve studied you. Out here, hunting. Trying to figure out that allure, trying to see what Dale sees when he looks at you. Can you believe I was jealous?” He snorted softly. “I was. Jealous of you and him. Because I love him…but I think I’m starting to realize that I love you too, Gansey.” He swallowed, the confession leaving his lips, and stood straight to see what she would say.

X

He surprised her, but then again, he always was full of surprises. Gansey wasn’t a mare who was caught off guard often. She’d lost so much in her life that she’d become…cold to it all, a numbness spreading through her like wildfire, tingles across her skin. Her parents, her twin brother, her little siblings… The herd. She’d left them all behind. They probably thought her a coward, a mare unfitting of the title of princess, or worse, queen. But her life was her own, and it didn’t revolve around the others. It didn’t revolve around a herd always seeming to be at war with their enemies. Her life was too short to waste. She had too much to offer the world… Or at least that’s what she told herself.

And now, looking into the quicksilver of Winter’s eyes, she found her heart caught off guard once more. For a moment, she just stood there, watching him, the cogs in her mind turning over. Jealousy--that was the truth. He might’ve been a silent hunter, but he was awful at hiding his true emotions. And, admittedly, she had toyed with him because of it. But this… This confession…

Slowly, a smirk spread across her face and she stepped over the corpse of her meal, bumping her muzzle against his, smearing the blood across the white of his fur. “You are beautiful, Gypsy Winter,” she murmured, circling him slowly, but his eyes never left hers. Her heartbeat skittered, excitement fresh in her blood. “I didn’t think you’d ever come around.”

X

Winter tipped his head to one side, never moving out from under her intense pale gaze. He watched her with all the grace of the forest creatures. Then as she stepped closer, he unfurled his large wings and wrapped them around her. “I mean it. I think…that we’re meant to be. You and me and Dale. A trio of lovers.” He grinned, soft yet fierce. “Something I never thought I deserved, let alone would achieve. But I’m glad. I’m glad Dale found me, and brought me here. You and him give me life. I love you, Gansey. And I love Daleson. And…one day, I hope we’ll have a family of our own, little ones to chase around and teach how to fly and how to hunt.” He thought of his nephew, Destry, and nodded. “I’d like nothing more than to start a family with you.”

X

Gansey laughed softly, husky in the soft night. “One thing at a time, Winter,” she tutted, headbutting his shoulder fondly before nipping her teeth across the back of his neck, teeth digging in enough to leave a mark, but Winter didn’t even flinch. So she nudged him aside, prancing past him, the deer forgotten as she gazed over her shoulder. “Is that an invitation? Because it sounds like one.” She grinned, fangs flashing, and Winter laughed. “If so…keep up!” With a low whinny, she kicked out at him and then took off into the woods, her laughter loud in the quiet night. Because she knew he would follow her. And who knows--maybe they’d have a family sooner than they thought.

FIN