|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:42 pm
It had been some time since Hikaru had spoken with her friend, Venticello. They'd known each other for some years, but weren't always the best at keeping in touch. Nevertheless, they had one of those friendships that weren't harmed by distance. She'd dropped by to see him today and it was as if they had never parted. She felt at complete ease around him, or at least, she usually did.
She couldn't help but shiver. She was describing an encounter she'd had to Venticello. Even thinking back on it chilled her to the bone.
"I'm telling you," she continued. "He had a skull for a face. He wasn't wearing it over his face and it wasn't skull markings." She'd seen enough soquili with strange markings to know what was real and what was just fur colors. "It was night, but the moon was full and I saw him, clear as day." She couldn't forget the way those vacant eye sockets looked in the moonlight. It was like she was looking at some devil out of a fairytale.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:46 pm
Venticello's ears flicked this way and that. He believed that she thought she saw a soquili with a skull with a face, but he still thought she had to have been mistaken. He didn't see how a creature without a working head could survive, let alone rattle his bones at people to scare them. Whatever she had seen was disturbing, but it couldn't have been exactly that.
He too genuinely treasured his time spent with Hikaru. He had a lifemate, so it wasn't that sort of companionship he gained from her. Instead, he felt like they were sorts of kindred spirits. Friends that didn't need any other sort of categorization. He'd been happy to see her when she first showed up. He still was, but now their meeting had taken an odd turn.
"I still think it must have been a mask," he ventured after a moment. "At night, I've been convinced I was seeing skinwalkers, when really it was nothing more than a flea-bitten coyote. It isn't hard to make that sort of mistake." He ended on a gentle tone, hoping she might take his lead and pass it off as a misidentification.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:51 pm
Hikaru huffed. It was hard not to take it personally, under the circumstances. "I do know what it sounds like," she said, "But try to take me seriously! It's me, not some idiot foal." That had come out a little harsher than she intended. She fought guilt, but decided to let the words stand and see how Venticello responded. There would always be time for apologies later. Anyways, she trusted her own instincts. She would have known if it was a mask.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:53 pm
Now it was Venticello's turn to feel guilty. He didn't mean to discount her experience. Thinking about it, he decided to take her seriously, even if it was hard for him to do so without question.
"I'm sorry," he ventured. "It sounds like it must have been quite frightful. Did the beast try to hurt you?" It was pretty clear that Hikaru was whole and healthy, but that didn't mean there hadn't been an attempt.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:17 pm
"No," admitted Hikaru. In fact, thinking back on it, she felt just a little chagrined at her reaction. "I ran away." She let out a soft sigh and shook her head at the memory of it. "I saw him standing there. He looked over, started to open his mouth, and I ran away."
Abruptly she laughed, incredulous at herself and the fear she had felt then. "I was so sure he was going to hurt me." She looked over to Venticello, seeing how he might respond. "Was that foolish of me? Should I have stayed and spoken to him? I know that some people will tell you of the excellent friendships they have with kalonas but that always seemed so far-fetched to me." She avoided kalona as much as she could. It wasn't worth getting bitten five times to not get bitten once.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:20 pm
Venticello smiled when she laughed but wasn't quite sure what to say. He legitimately wasn't sure if she'd made the right choice. There were certainly soquili out there with fearsome appearances that didn't deserve to be feared. he imagined that it must be very painful to those soquili to be run away from and reviled. But didn't it make sense for them to do so? There were so many dangers out in the world, from wolves to human hunters to skinwalkers. Could they really afford to not be cautious?
"I think you made the right choice," he ventured after a moment. "If he had meant to hurt you, you might not have gotten a second chance. If he didn't," he made himself don a smile he didn't feel. "I'm certain he'd understand. A lot of people are afraid of skulls and bones on their own, let alone attached to a soquili."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:22 pm
Somehow, being comforted by Venticello only made her feel stranger about it. "No," she said swiftly. "I made a mistake. If he was a kind soquili then what I did was inexcusable. I should have waited and found out first." She tried to imagine what life would be like for her if she was the same person but had a face made of bones. How hurt would she be if foals screamed and mares ran from her very appearance?
"Maybe he was ill. It can be pleasant having a face like that." She didn't like to think about what sort of disease could rot the flesh from your face like that. On second thought, she hoped it was just a mutation instead.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2016 12:26 pm
Venticello grew more serious then. He knew that Hikaru meant well in her endeavors, but she was his friend. It would devastate him if anything happened to her, so he felt he couldn't stay silent.
"You really did make the right choice," he said quietly. "It doesn't have to be a skinwalker or a kalona to hurt you, you know. I actually think that cruel soquili of other breeds must be more common, given the rarity of those demons." Who had ever seen a skinwalker? Not many.
"My cousin- we weren't close, but he was nearly killed one night by a stranger. He said that they were strange, like they had all manner of thorns and plants growing from their body. They weren't a skinwalker or anything, but they still hurt him. They hurt him badly." He could see her face falling. He didn't tend to tell this story much for that very reason. "The stranger had asked for directions before he attacked my cousin. You really... you really can't just trust everyone you meet."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
