She was going to show them. Each and every one. They'd be eating every single foul word they'd ever said against her when she finally came home a better healer than all of them combined. And she would hold it over their heads for the rest of their lives. And beyond, of the opportunity was given. Nevermind that she had absolutely no experience with herbal medicine. That's why she'd left home, after all. That and to escape the constant abuse from other members of the herd for her lack of a horn. They thought they were so high and mighty with those silly little stick poking out of their foreheads. Who needed a horn anyways? It probably got in the way when trying to walk through trees or something.
Azizah snorted to no one in particular at these thoughts, a nice accompaniment to the sucking sounds her hooves made as she pulled them from the thick mud. This was, apparently, the floodplains. Or at least she assumed that's where she was considering it was definitely a plains and it was definitely flooded. But she had a much more fitting name for it. Hell. How did other Soquili live on such soft ground? She might not have missed any of her herd mates, but she certainly missed the solid rocks of the mountains beneath her hooves. It was already apparent that this was going to be an absolutely miserable adventure. And she didn't even have anyone around to share the misery with.
----
Maybe this hadn't been the best idea, Nicodemus thought to himself as he plodded across the unusual waterline. Each step made a gross wet noise. Sometimes mud went flying. It wasn't pretty. He had been in this area before, but a good two seasons ago when it was bone dry. It had been nice back then; beautiful, even. Like a small glade versus the large unending forest to the east. With much more interesting flora, to boot. The trees were tall, thin, with exposed roots. Some had looked like they were just stretched out to the point that it looked like a large invisible hand was plucking them from the ground against their will. Others seemed as if they were about to up and walk away on their own. Now those same roots were rising from the water. The area was close to being a swamp now! It was rather jarring. And Nico was rather wet. It was impossible to tell when the ground started to decline, or just outright pitfall. So while the waterline shouldn't have been beyond his fetlocks at best, his flanks were a little soggy from losing his footing a good few times. At least he had managed to shake most of the mud off.
If it was this bad, he could only imagine how treacherous crossing the river would be. The half-imp swallowed. Maybe he should head back to the plains and wait this one out a little... But would a knight do that? Would they let a little bit of filth and a long swim hold them back? Never! Nicodemus steeled himself at the thought. If they were of sturdier stuff, so was he! After that little internal pep talk, he nodded to himself and kept on track.
Looking around, he noticed some of the colors nearby were amiss; the area was mostly brown, gray, and sometimes green. But he swore he caught a glance of purple swirls! Nico did a double-take, then blinked. Ah! There seemed to be another horse on a journey! What a wonderful happenstance! Someone to talk to. "Hail!" he called as he padded closer to the mare. "Hail, miss!" Yes, this was a mare. A sizable one, at that. Though, to be fair, most equines were bigger than Nico. He had imp size for an usdia despite his mixed heritage, yes, but it didn't mean much among the Soquili stock. But this horse seemed bigger than others he had seen, with a long tail, to boot. Didn't unicorns have such tails? Must be that she was a half-breed like he was. Without even knowing her, he felt some solidarity in that. Both being a mix and having a long tail that wasn't all long strands of hair.
----
And thus the solitude was ended. Immediately Azizah was on the defensive. No one was to be trusted back home, so it was safe to assume that no one else outside of the herd should be trusted either. Or in the least it was safer to assume that. Sure, there was a possibility that someone might actually be nice to her for once. Years of constant bullying had built up quite a sizable wall around this mare.
And from the looks of things, this new company wouldn't be getting over that wall any time soon. Azizah was honestly caught off her guard. She was from a herd of unicorns, all of fairly normal stature. Yes, she was a bit big compared to most of them, even the stallions, but THIS. Her first thought was "Why is there a foal out in this spirits-forsaken mudpit?" Her second thought was more along the lines of "Why does it have two horns? Please don't let this be some kind of super unicorn, I can't deal with that right now."
As he came nearer it was more obvious that the proportions were somewhat off to be those of a foal. She had never seen one, but there certainly had been talk about very small Soquili within the herd. If Azizah remembered correctly, most of that talk was laughing at how inadequate they must be, considering their size. It had bothered her at the time, and while the thought of this small Soquili possibly having two horns for healing, she allowed herself to feel some small amount of kinship with him through their shared mockery.
"Uh...Hey? Can I help you...?"
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