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 Posted: Tue May 26, 2015 7:02 pm
 Well, this had been a lovely idea.
Rui sighed to herself as she paced along the narrow cliff that kept her suspended above an angry mother bear, her hapless cub- that she had rescued, thankyouverymuch- napping only a few feet away, oblivious to the trouble he had caused his would-be savior. Was still causing, and no sign of an end anywhere in sight. She had been trying to be noble, having seen the cub struggling to make it across the rushing river- she'd even endured the little beast biting and clawing at her as she'd struggled to keep aloft with it long enough to make it safely to the other side. She'd crashed into the shoreline with the added weight, of course, and injured her wing badly enough that she couldn't fly, but was that penance enough for this good deed? Oh, nooooo... now she had an angry mother bear out for her blood, convinced that she'd done them a personal wrong.
Sulking, the brightly colored mare kicked at a rock, skittering backwards when the outer edge of the cliffside began to crumble, and growled to herself. Well... this was an interesting puzzle. It just figured that the one time Seto had decided not to be her partner in crime was the one time her plans got her into a spot of trouble. ...Okay, well, maybe not one time... she did manage to get herself into a spot of trouble once before. Or maybe twice before. Was it three times? All right, so her plans had gotten them into trouble before, but he had always been there to help her dig them both out again. Now, she was stuck here, between a rock and an angry bear (stupid metaphors), no way up and no way down.
Another angry yowl from the bear below drew a pouting glare from the winged mare above.
"What's your problem?" Rui demanded, as if expecting an answer. "I saved your kid! What more do you want?!" Of course, her only response was an irritated roar, and again, the petite mare leaned back on her haunches with a sigh. Well... nothing to do but wait for it to go away, she supposed. She hoped the cub would get hungry soon, but... wait, no, that was a bad thing. Hungry meant looking for meat. Prey. Glimmering yellow eyes took one look at her bloody, scratched up wing, giving off the coppery scent of blood, and rolled her eyes to the heavens. Of course, she could be dinner, too. The gods just hated her today, didn't they?
She took the opportunity to glare up into the sky, just beginning to darken with the first hint of sunset, and resumed her pacing. Nothing to do except wait it out, she supposed... hopefully, they would decide to leave her alone before it got too dark for her to climb down.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2015 11:29 am
No, Dash already had enough foolhardy ideas running through his mind -- enough plans and desires that would really cause him or his herd trouble. Still, they were his secret, and he was smart enough not to follow up on the thoughts. There was absolutely no way his family would endorse him becoming a hunter. . . . no way his parents would want him to purposefully seek out skinwalkers to silence them. No. Not only might that cost him his life, but it could draw the walker back to his herd, for vengeance.
No.
Logically, unless he cut all ties with his herd, he couldn't go out and hunt. Not yet. So, he did what he could by training to be a protector, a guardian, a defender. While he still trained as if he were to go out to hunt and slay, he only used his skills when they mattered most, and for the good of others.
Today, it would be no exception.
Circling high in the sky, the winged stallion was wheeling around to make it back to the herd when the roar of a boar caught his ears. While bear weren't often something he looked on as a threat -- this particular bellow sounded like a very pissed off creature. So it was, the stallion dropped down lower, circling high above in hopes that he might discover the source. There was nothing a bear could do to him up here . . . and sure enough, as he flew over a small set of cliffs and hills, he saw the offended bear. Unfortunately for Dash, he also saw what it was focused on -- some soquili!
Uh-oh. Now that looked like trouble!
He didn't bother waiting. He didn't look hard enough to see if the soquili suck on the cliff side was capable of handling the situation or not. His mind already presumed not so much, given they gave the appearance of being rather stuck. Wind or not, it was probably best to drive the bear off . . . diplomacy or reasoning with it was long since out of the picture.
Thankfully, though, Dash was large and he had an aerial advantage. He didn't want to hurt the mother bear, but he did want to deter her from hanging around. So it was, he swooped down low, and landed not far from the little bear cub. "Hey now . . . probably best to keep an eye on him instead of harassing perfect strangers."
The effect was two-fold and immediate.
The little cub cried out in alarm, and began to retreat from the kalona tailed stranger. The mama bear forgot all about Rui and turned its aggression on Dash. With another roar, the bear charged Dash, infuriated that he would dare get close to her cub!
Thankfully, Dash had enough sense to jump back and retreat. The bear, obviously, was not about to let him go . . . and for awhile, as night began to fall, he jumped and flew out of reach of the bears claws, slowly drawing it away from the cliffside, and hoping to wear it out enough. It took a little doing -- for a mother's wrath is great -- but even the bear knew when it was beat. She couldn't rip the soquili to shreds if she couldn't get her paws on him!
Finally, drawn away from the cliffs and back to the river, the bear gave up. She was tired, and two soquili against one wasn't a fight she wanted. With much complaining, huffing, and puffing, the bear finally gave up and returned to her cub. She wasn't very happy, but a winged soquili had quite the advantage. . . Her cub was safe, and that was what mattered.
With the bear gone, Dash hesitated just a moment, ensuring that the mother didn't have second thoughts. After he was certain the danger was clear, he folded back his wings, and trotted back the way he had come. Part of him wondered if the splash of pink and white was still caught up in those cliffs, or if they had made their way down and taken off. Who knew how long they might have been stuck there?
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Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 8:35 pm
For a while, it seemed as if Rui would have to give up on the idea of escaping this annoying little headache of a situation before nightfall, and had resigned herself to the reality of having to spend the night on this gods-forsaken cliffside with a heavy, defeated sigh. Her injured wing clearly wasn't reliable enough to be trusted with her weight at the moment, since she could barely extend it past her shoulder without cringing in pain, and the mother bear wasn't looking any more likely to leave her alone than she was at the start of all this. No doubt she would get an earful from Cetra once she finally made it back- assuming that she wasn't found on patrol, she thought with an outward cringe.
Rolling her eyes as she reluctantly began to slow her frustrated pacing, the winged mare had just begun to assess how exactly these sleeping arrangements would work on such a narrow ledge when a shadow passed overhead.
Abruptly, she started, ears perking to immediate attention as she focused intently on the winged silhouette, wondering if they had spotted her from up there. Of course, she was aware that she was kind of hard to miss, honestly... while her brothers tended to blend in well with their native desert habitat, she had inherited just enough of both of her parents' muted colors to create a rather... well, loud, mix. She pouted just a bit at that thought, but entertained it only briefly before returning her attention to the Soquili gliding gracefully above her and debating calling out to them for assistance. She really hated the thought of asking anyone, especially a stranger, for help, but... well, what was worth more at this point; her pride, or a good night's sleep? She may only have grudgingly admitted that her assured well-being would probably trump her pride, but only if she was forced into it.
Luckily, the decision was made for her as her apparent would-be savior literally swooped down and landed lightly on his feet near the sleeping bear cub. Rui's eyes widened in incredulity at his audacity, although there was a bit of ill-concealed appreciation for his boldness there as well, and she turned to watch the mother bear's reaction with a bit of anxious tension to her stance. As expected, the fallout was immediate and violent, but as quickly as he had landed, the strange stallion took to the air again with a lithe, effortless bound, and all of the sudden, both he and the troublesome family of bears were gone.
Well... that had been unexpected.
While she took a moment to simply stand there and gawk, the bright mare became aware that she was now free to make her way home- assuming she could climb down from her perch without incident. She wondered for a moment if her rescuer- she snorted at that, as if she needed a rescuer- planned on returning, but dismissed the though with a shake of her head. Even if he did, and was expecting something in return, she had nothing of value to offer him, and her family was half a day's journey away- surely too far to bother with the possibility of gaining a reward. There was little point in standing around here waiting to see, so she set about attempting to judge the best path for edging her way down onto solid ground.
For a while, Rui was solely focused on her task, blocking out the outside world in intense concentration as she edged carefully along the steep stone incline, fighting not to let her hooves lose traction. She didn't hear the strange stallion's return, didn't hear the rustling of his feathered wings or his steady footfalls nearing her, and when her hoof slipped and she began to fall backwards from her ledge, she didn't know he'd halted below her.
Panicked, she flapped her wings uselessly for a moment in freefall, though she winced visibly at the effort on her injured appendage, but couldn't gain her bearings enough to slow her descent, and a moment later, she crashed down onto a very warm, feathery and decidedly not rocky surface. They were both sent tumbling down in a mass of legs, feathers and fur, and for a moment, she was too disoriented to realize what had happened, blinking slowly as the world gradually righted itself and came back into focus.
The first things she noticed were wide grey eyes, unfamiliar but somehow warm, and her own golden stare was slow to move from there, somewhat bleary, still stunned from her fall. As she regained coherence, though, Rui became increasingly aware that she was now sprawled on top of an unfamiliar, admittedly attractive stallion, who had apparently come to her rescue. The thought would have made any number of the mares she knew blush, giggle and swoon at the 'romantic' nature of it all.
Instead, she snorted. "What did you do that for?"
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2017 2:32 pm
Everything had happened quickly. One moment he had been approaching the mare, to try to help her down from the cliff-ledge. The next minute, the mare took a tumble, and unfortunately took him with her! Down they went, head over hooves, a mess of hair and feathers, before they came to a somewhat painful stop on the ground below. Dasharathi had hoped to stop her fall, but he knew both of the were likely rattled from such an exit.
Thankfully, Dasharathi was a hardy stallion, and he didn't think he'd broken anything. He was certain he'd lost a few feathers, and his tail tip burned - likely ripped a few of those feathers out due to their scarcity. But he knew they'd grow back, and any bruises or scrapes would heal. Hopefully the mare sprawled atop of him was faring better.
While Dash didn't know what he'd expected to have happen, to have Rui snort and demand answers wasn't it. He supposed it was better than having her break down into tears, but honestly, he struggled to find an answer. It wasn't as if he meant the mare to take a tumble, much less down on top of him. Then again, he had wanted to break her fall, and hoped that he'd managed to a little bit. Still, his good humor wasn't easily turned into frustration and his tail tip gave a little swish. "Begging your pardon, then," he grinned, giving a small shrug of his splayed out wings. "I'd meant to help you down the cliff, but I suppose breaking your fall was the fastest way to get you down." Though it might have been her doing, he didn't think bringing that up would make her any happier. At least she couldn't complain about his efficiency!
"Are you all right, though?" He asked, grey eyes losing a touch of their humor to be replaced with genuine concern. He honestly didn't know how she would be faring after such a trip, and he didn't know what sort of state she'd been in to start! He was no rush for the mare to move, but was pretty certaon she'd be scrambling for her hooves soon enough.
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Posted: Mon May 15, 2017 4:51 pm
It was a day for surprises, it seemed. The winged mare wasn't sure what she'd been expecting from her mysterious savior, but this wasn't it. She'd fully expected to have to dig herself out of a sticky situation and spend the remainder of the day- or evening, as was the case now- nursing her bruised pride and thinking of a convincing lie that would keep Cetra from asking too many questions. Instead, here she was, staring into the surprised gaze of a complete stranger and already wondering why her mouth seemed to run off and refuse to listen to her at the most inopportune times. Delicate and polite ladyship she was not- her sister was the diplomatic one of the family- but she still had some manners, and it did occur to her that demanding what her rescuer had been thinking before... well, rescuing her, was a bit rude.
"Sorry," she murmured, flicking her ears back in what might have been sheepishness. She was loathe to give too much away, but it hadn't escaped her notice that he had clearly put himself at risk to help a complete stranger, and he was rather adept at managing to pull them both out of trouble. Not that she would say that out loud quite yet. There might still be an ulterior motive- and she could have managed on her own, thankyouverymuch.
Still, even if she was unwilling to admit that she was impressed, Rui had to concede the fact that he was grinning at her despite their rough landing and subsequent tussle was... charming. A little. Maybe. Despite the discomfort and exasperation she had with the whole scenario, she found an answering grin dawning on her own muzzle, though it was lopsided and slightly self-deprecating. She could certainly appreciate the amusement of their situation- she wasn't completely devoid of humor like certain members of her family- and the fact that this stranger wasn't actively lording his rescue over her like her brothers might have did a lot to soften her. She had, after all, literally just bowled him over after he had rushed in to help her.
His polite inquiry into her health made her realize that she still hadn't moved to let him up yet, and she moved to shift her weight off of him and grunted as she hauled herself to her feet, only slightly sore from the fall. "I'm okay, thanks," she offered, the unspoken 'thanks to you' hovering in the air, but she merely settled for tilting her head to assess him for a moment before adding, "are you?" Rui knew she wasn't heavy-set, but she wasn't exactly light and hollow-boned either, and dealing with the full impact of a falling soquili could not have been pleasant. For the first time that night, she flushed, though she hoped that it wasn't evident through the pale fur covering her cheeks.
Awkwardly, she cleared her throat. "I'm Rui, by the way."
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