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 Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 8:32 am
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 8:56 am
"The one you seek is an elusive beast, choosing only to wander at night. I know of that which you seek and am aware of all that he is. While your journey has proved difficult thus far he will know of your presence. For that reason I need only direct you to his home...
Know now that he hears of everything.
The Lord of the Grove, Guardian of the forest lives far in the north. To reach him you must move swiftly and silently through the mountains. You will find him where the mists shroud the peaks from view, where the nymphs of the woods play their most foul tricks. Step lightly, disrespect nothing and in light of your arrival he will come.
...I must warn you though, this solitary creature does not appreciate company!"
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Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:13 am
She had made it...the directions had been exceptionally vague and she had, at points, questioned the sanity of the old bear. Yet here she was, in the mountains and she was positively freezing. She knew that the peaks were snow capped but she had never expected this place to be so cold! In this regard she was completely naive...after all, she had spent all of her life in the lowlands and in particularly warm climates.
At least she knew what 'cold' was now.
She was freezing her backside off!
Nevertheless, as she looked around the rather dark forest she couldn't help but take note of the exceptionally dark surroundings. It was afternoon for goodness sake and yet the mist made it almost eerie - if she had been less logical she would have assumed the place to be haunted or worse. That being said the constant chirp and scuttling life forms seemed to defy this assumption...the forest was very much alive.
Just...odd?
Shaking her sandy mane the mare continued to observe her surroundings for the time being, though she had the oddest feeling she was being watched.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:08 am
Azumoth's forest was perhaps not as infamous as he assumed. Years of paranoia and his own complex personality had resulted in him assuming that the reason for such few visits had been because he resided there. Deeming himself to be nothing more than a monster, he had assumed for years that the parents of fellow soquili had advised their children to never go beyond the forest edge and to explore the depths.
This had suited him.
Unfortunately, in recent months since the very moment in which he rescued the fiery wind stallion, things had changed considerably. Now he was regularly informed of unwelcome 'visitors' who were more often than not lost. He was never impressed with this but in accordance with his sense of duty he had led them out again and made certain they didn't come back (or he'd tried at least). He wasn't sure whether to blame such a thing on the stallion or whether or not it was appropriate to assume that the stallion had been a catalyst for a chain of events that would completely change the male's life.
Nevertheless, true to form it wasn't long before Azumoth received word of another entry to the forest and he had calmly made his way towards the mare in question. What he had found had shocked him to the very core and at first he had assumed it was his mother...but from those teal tendrils and the slightly taller stature (from what he remembered) he wasn't entirely sure it was her.
She looked cold though, rather unsurprising.
"You are not supposed to be here," he murmured at last from the shadows, the teal orb in his chest rippling with light as though in unspoken recognition...though he had no idea of who she was in the first place.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:13 pm
The voice was so soft and yet it had the ability to send another shudder down her spine. While it was gentle, there was something so cold and almost empty about it that she gulped. The bear had warned her that he would be aware, had warned her that he would know and would be unimpressed with the invasion of his privacy and yet...
"I know..." She murmured after a few moments, turning round very slowly until she caught the flicker of the glowing light in the shadows. The words of her own herd fluttered into her mind and she nearly quivered. They had said that he was a monster but she could barely see him at all...it was that light that made her feel weak and vulnerable.
He could see in the dark.
"But, it was something that needed to be done," there was no used lying as it would ultimately lead to hostility and she wasn't quite ready for that yet. "I'm looking for someone, they said he would be here..."
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:16 am
"And who might 'he' be?" Somewhat put out by the invasion of privacy though not entirely unaccustomed to it the stallion continued to eye the mare suspiciously. She really did look like his mother, even her eyes flickered with he same wisdom and yet deep within them there was no hint of an individual that was easy to manipulate. Rather, her eyes were strong and her gaze was penetrating - a coincidence perhaps that she looked so much like his mother.
"I am the only stallion within these reaches, there are no others," he informed her in a manner that suited his demeanour and his role. Within these forests he was the guardian and intruders were not welcome. Granted, if she spoke the name of one within these reaches then he would locate him and bring him to her but she would step no further. Such was the way things were in these 'dead' woods...she could lurk on the borders but she was not permitted to go any further.
Should there be none of the name or description she provided though, then she would find herself quickly dismissed. He would give her his usual warning and if she resisted then she would find he would be more forceful. All in all though, now accustomed to the intruders in his woods his body language was still imposing but not as tense as it had once been. Muscles rippled beneath the black fur and yet they didn't so much as twitch in anticipation.
He might have been waiting, but he wasn't about to jump to conclusions yet.
It seemed he was growing up, just a little.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:32 am
"Therein lies the problem," she replied in an assertive tone that resulted in the stallion looking mildly surprised. He may have been imposing and she may have been cold but there was no way in hell he was going to push her out after she'd walked do far. The bear had said that the one she sought was in these mountains, in this very wood and she wasn't leaving until she had at least seen him! She didn't care if he was a 'monster' but she needed to see with her own eyes instead of listening to stories.
...All the stories in her herd were biased, they hated him and yet she just couldn't hate something she had never seen or met. Admittedly the one that stood in her wake was both tall and powerful (from his shadowed form) but there was something about his eyes that settled her. She had seen violent stallions before, there were plenty in her herd who fought against one another to move up in rank but this stallion was different. Yes, his glowing amber eyes were hard but they were purposeful and wise from experience.
Dark they may be but deadly they were not.
Apparently her assumptions had been accurate as he had listened to her this far and so as he had spoken and perhaps even assessed her she had done nothing more than shift her wait and continue to watch. It was only now that he spoke once more than a trace of doubt was beginning to line her own thoughts. He was the only one here?
She couldn't see him clearly but those words alone pretty much honed her search to well...him? Granted, he fit one part of the description by the glowing light but what about the other bits... The monstrous appearance, the deadly and murderous nature. If this was how her herd had described him and this was the only stallion here then they were a bit off the mark!
Alas, maybe if she told her her situation he might help her. He might not have been the one she sought but he might know of someone.
"You see I was never told his name, my mother wouldn't speak of it where I come from but I managed to get a description from asking around," she cleared her throat and moved slightly closer to the stallion, his true height and bulk becoming more apparent by the size of his shadow. "More of a grapevine thing, they only know pieces and no one likes to talk of it but..."
Why was she babbling? She didn't babble!
Nervous maybe.
"Sir I'm looking for my brother, he ran away from my herd before I was born. No one likes to speak of him, the elders really detest him so I don't even know his name but I asked around and found rumours." Get to the point, she urged herself even as the words came out of her mouth. "I know they're not accurate but the descriptions are unique so I figured I would use them and see where I got to!"
"They said he was always surrounded by a glowing light, that he was black and had amber eyes like my mother. But they also said he had twisted horns on his head, large teeth and even wore strange attire - like something from 'hell'," she pulled a face at these words and shook her head, "I don't know if the last bit is true but they warned me that it was dangerous...said he would kill me on sight."
Here she sighed.
"My herd are always lying and I'm so tired of it. My mother...what happened wasn't her fault and she doesn't deserve to be treated the way she is. I don't want to believe just their words, I want to see with my own eyes so if you even know anything that might help me...anything, I'd be grateful!"
Phew, there...she'd said it.
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Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2007 2:58 am
Wait, what?
His lips parted as the mare babbled on for a short while before at last coming to her point. Initially she'd been nervous but it seemed that something inside her steeled her one and she continued in a much clearer voice. Tone full of purpose she had addressed him with respect (an odd thing in itself) and had stated her reason for being where she was - alright so he didn't know how she'd ended up here but ultimately she had and now she was describing...
Him?
Well the description hurt what little of his pride her had left, being described as something hellish was fine when he said it but sucked royally when someone else did. Alas, she was being honest with him and was merely recalling what she had heard...she even voiced a doubt on whether or not it was true. More to the point, she had described him and had given a brief description of a herd that made his spine shiver.
It couldn't be coincidence could it?
It would make a lot of sense...
But that would mean he had a sister, more to the point she was talking about his mother as if something had happened. His mother hadn't been the best to him, she'd been hard on him but it had been so he could survive. She hadn't babied him, hadn't given him sympathy but had ensured he became hardened to the brutal reality of what he was and how his 'herd' were to treat him. It was the only way she could have protected him or that was how Moppet had explained it - after all his mother hadn't expected him to run and she could have never expected one kind elder to encourage him to do so.
Ah, he couldn't hate his mother, she had done her duty after all.
No longer deeming it appropriate to hide the stallion calmly pulled himself from the shadows to reveal himself as he truly was. Twisted horns (check), glowing light (check)...everything. There was no point hiding, there were no others like him, he knew that...
"How is she?" He murmured softly.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 2:45 am
A 'devil' was a little bit of an understatement, or such was the opinion of the mare as the stallion unveiled himself. She had thought that her herd were exagerating when they explained his appearance - she had thought that the twisted horns were the creation of a child, dreamed up in nightmares to scare others and to hide the truth but here he was. Standing before her was a being that had been accurately described by her herd in the most brutal of ways.
At first glance he was absolutely terrifying and yet the more the mare stared at him, her form having shrunk (seemingly) to accomodate his large stature, the more she began to see something else. Beneath the facade of darkness, that devillish appearance, the eyes told an entirely different story. Deep and bright they had been wisened by experience in life, they held no smiles and yet they held no malice either. A creature quite obviously born and having endured hardships had a somewhat weathered appearance but there was a tiny part of Ashura that wanted to believe his bark was decidedly worse than his bite.
Ah! Call her a terrible optimist at this point, a complete idiot and she might have been inclined to agree but there were similarities in him (no matter how small) that reminded her of her mother. The way in which he stared at her inquisitively and that jaw line were all something her mother had - granted his pelt was as black as night as the demonic blood completely dominant but there were small links to her mother.
This view was only further supported when he enquired about his mother - their mother.
How was she?
"She is...as content as one can be while living the life of such a rank," she replied after a few moments of consideration, she hoped that he would understand her words for the pain of explainign them would be a little much. "The mate they selected for her, my father, is pleasant and unassuming so she has no complaints...I suppose," she mused after a few moments and gave a shrug.
"She is healthy but quiet."
Not exactly the best way news to give someone, but she had a feeling this stallion could see right through her.
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