Post by avalikia on Jun 11, 2010 22:00:27 GMT -5
Characters:
Nukpana - Female Horse
Virgil - Male Horse
Setting:
Grassy Plains
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By far the greatest benefit of the plains, at least in Nukpana's opinion, is the space. It seemed like in the woodlands you couldn't go more than a few strides without a tree getting in the way. The large blood bay mare is taking full advantage of that space to satisfy her urge to run, though she's keeping herself down to a medium canter so that she doesn't totally exhaust herself. She's had this dream of seeing how far and how fast she can go, but she knows it's foolishness to try with the possibility of wolves coming by. Her sides are flecked with sweat but she ignores it, instead reveling in the feel of the wind.
It'd been a long, long time that he'd been running. So long in fact, that he'd lost count of the hours. Only a few times along the way did he stop, but it wasn't very often. They light grey stallion had come a long way from even further west than this location, the back of his hide still stained with his rider's blood and bits of his legs and chest splattered with the crimson coloration as well, from others being shot with the strange sticks of the humans. Luckily, he'd made it out alive. Not a single shot had hit him, and he was a very, very lucky one for that. Still with the heavy saddle lining his back and with the bridle still in his mouth, Virgil's eyes widened when he saw a glimpse of a figure not much unlike himself in the distance, and let out a loud sort of grunting neigh; more of desperation than of greeting. He needed a safe area to stop in, he couldn't run forever. The knot at the end of the reins had fallen along his withers, but finally, after a day of running, the knot had come lose and from his own running motion, a strap came flying downward, just under his hoof. With all of his weight on a rein, the bit in his mouth was tugged lose, and he was finally able to shake the brow-bane off from under his forelock. It landed with a heavy 'thud', and he stopped; finally. Panting a bit, he looked around to find the other horse, wherever it was, and luckily she wasn't moving too fast. "Hey! You! Can you help me a minute?" He called out tiredly, his voice strong despite his obvious fatigue.
The neigh easily attracts Nukpana's attention, but aside from a quick twist of her head in his direction she's slow to respond. That sounded like a stallion; probably the last thing she'd like to run into. But the exact note of it makes her curious. She debates for a moment before she changes course to one that will bring her to him. But she doesn't change speed, instead taking a moment to see what she can tell about him before she comes close. Though the scent of humans is unfamiliar to her, after a moment she realizes what he's wearing. She's never seen it, of course, but she knows what tack is thanks to her mother's descriptions and she quickly guesses his origins. Bringing herself to a stop just barely within easy talking distance, if you raise your voice just a little, she snorts and says, "You're a human's horse." It's an accusation, and she hardly looks ready to do more than stare at him suspiciously.
"/Was/.. a human's horse, ma'am." He calls out to her, standing where he was. He'd been around these 'wild' types before, and had of course been the means of his rider lassoing a few of them, and soon enough they were a part of the gang's calvary as well. In other words, he knew not to push his luck. He needed help, not for her to get uppity and leave him there. Oh, the saddle had been on for a while; since some time the night previous if his memory served. "Look, I'm not tryin' to bug ya or nothin', but I need someone to help me get this damned thing off." With no rider, he didn't want the saddle on. It wasn't as if he particularly minded the weight. Virgil had been quite used to it by now. It was just.. well, he didn't /need/ it anymore. "My name's Virgil, by the way."
That clarification seems to do nothing to ease the large mare's suspicions. "So I see," Nukpana says dryly, as she eyes the saddle. She pauses for a long moment, trying to decide exactly what she should do about this situation. Eventually, however, she makes up her mind and approaches him slowly, glaring at him with her ears pinned back as she nears his head before stopping to examine the saddle. It's not hard for her to see that the girth is the weak point and her sharp teeth should be able to at least weaken it. "You can pay me back with your story," she says, her tone practically an order, before she starts biting at the girth. She makes a show of being rough about it, but she's actually careful to avoid biting him instead.
Watching her carefully, he turns a bit to try to avoid her when he sees the glare, but realizes shortly thereafter that she's just.. maybe a moody one. No big deal. Nodding his head gently, he lets out a long sigh, and flicks his tail so that it hits his right side instead of his left. A grin forms, and one ear perks forward while the other listens for lingering predatory threats. "Ahh, so you are interested in humans, huh?" He asks, trying to help her by sort of tugging his side away while she bites down, but it doesn't seem to work that well. However good of a job she was doing with the girth of the saddle, he couldn't really tell. It still felt tight around his abdomen. "Fair enough, I suppose. But, what's your name, miss?"
By design, girths are tough. However, those who make them assume that someone will keep an eye on the horse wearing one and prevent an extensive assault such as the one that Nukpana is launching. Still, it will probably take her some time. The first question causes her to pause and flick her tail in irritation. "I know far more about humans than I'd like to," she says with a snort, "I want to know how you got into this mess." She starts right back at it again, not wanting this to take any longer than it has to. When asked for her name, she simply replies, "Nukpana," between bites.
"You make it sound like they're all bad." Virgil comments, though his tone is neutral. "There are a lot of bad men, but there are also a lot of good men. My owner was a good man." He says, giving his ears a flick and shaking his head, a scoff being heard afterwards. "His own kind didn't see him that way, though. Killed him, and killed some of the other horses there too. Can't say why, though. They sure are strange things." He says, apparently in heavy thought about it, as his eyes had wandered to the open expanse of land for a while, there. After a few more seconds, he could feel that the saddle didn't feel quite as tight, and glanced back. "I can't thank you enough for your help, Nukpana. But.. thank you very much."
"I assume you've never been wild before?" Nukpana says as she pauses to check her work, "My mother was born among humans. 'Good' humans, you might say - they took good care of her. But it changed her. She was hardly a horse when I knew her." She bites at the weak point that she created a few more times before she backs up and says, "Try rolling or something. That shouldn't hold now. And you can save your thanks - I wouldn't wish a saddle on anyone." Well, maybe on Lootah. Oh, and Orion's father definitely! But not one someone who hasn't actually given her a reason to hate them yet.
Her assumption was actually false, to an extent. "Naw, not really. I was born wild, I guess. Wasn't long before I was in with a bunch'a other mares, some colts and such. Few geldings.. poor guys. Not many stallions, though. They only kept the /best/ stallions, where I was." He says, with a hint of bragging in his voice, but it was passed off with a chuckle. "It really ain't such a bad thing. Not much weight to it, and it saves the men from tuggin' on your mane." Taking a step away, he gives his entire body a rough shake, loosening the girth some more, but eventually he does keel down to his knees, and gives himself a good roll on the one side. A loud, harsh 'rip' sound, and he stood up again, the saddle and all of the dead owner's items; live ammo included, falling off his back and being left on the ground. "Much better!" Virgil said, giving a satisfied sort of whuffle afterward, before he looked back to her. "So.. what exactly did you care to know, Miss? 'Bout the men in general, er.. what happened to get me here, er what?"
Watching and listening with an expression that's half hostility and half curiosity, Nukpana snorts at the comment about geldings. She doesn't really know what one is, aside from the vague description her mother gave. Bizarre not-quite-stallions... But she hardly thinks that the horses that fit a human's criteria for 'best' would match hers. "You've already told me most of what I want to know, actually," she answers, "I don't care to hear your whole life's story." She pauses and considers for a moment before she adds, "I just want to know what the odds are that you'll die the moment I leave you alone, or if you'll be running off to find another human to take care of you." That's the honest truth, actually, though of course phrased in the most unpleasant way possible. Not that she actually cares about him; she just wants to know what she can expect from this stallion. She supposes it will really depend on how much he remembers from his colt days.
Some would find the feisty mare's hostility off putting. It rather amuses Virgil however, and he gives another light hearted chuckle before speaking again. "Well that's just fine then, 'cause I don't particularly care to tell it either." Boring, is how he'd describe it. But to an interested feral horse with curiosity about the bi-pedal creatures, well, they might find it interesting. "Naw, miss. I think I'll be just fine now. I didn't get hurt 'er nothin' on the way out here." He says, and scuffs his hoof against the ground idly. "I guess just.. having company would be nice. I reckon there's an awful lot of wolves and other nuisances out here and uh.. well, I think a horse all out here by his lonesome might draw some attention."
"Well, that's the real question, isn't it?" Nukpana says with an arrogant toss of her head, "Do I run off and leave you to fend for yourself, or do I not bother with all that and just show you where my herd is?" And to judge by how she continues to eye him speculatively, she hasn't quite made up her mind just yet. There are some rather hefty pros and cons to weigh, and several reasons why the decision might not even matter. It's only now that she holds her head in that high, authoritative curve that indicates that she either thinks very much of herself or she's a lead mare. The truth is, of course, that she's /both/.
"Seems my life is in your hands, miss." He says with a sort of playful toss of his head as well. She was an interesting one, this Nukpana. He liked her already what with her helping remove the saddle, and had a sneaking suspicion that she'd let him stick around. With her, with a herd, it didn't matter, he just didn't want to be left alone. Virgil wasn't scared, just cautious and not suicidal. "You don't have to worry about me making a mess of things; just 'cause I'm not quite a wild one like you don't mean I don't know how to keep quiet."
The truth of the matter is that Nukpana simply doesn't know what to make of him. A stallion like Lootah is easy to deal with: she hates him, he hates her, simple as that. Sirocco is slightly more complicated: she mostly ignores him, he lets her ignore him, and everyone's happy. This Virgil, however, doesn't seem put off by her at all, and she just doesn't know what to do about that. Maybe she just needs to try harder. After a moment of silence, she starts to put some of her thoughts into words, to see if he has any comments on them, "I'm not worried about predators; if you're weak then they'll kill you and I won't have to worry about you again. But you could disrupt my herd, and I don't like that. I don't know what our stallion would make of you, and if he doesn't want you around and you stay anyway then it would only cause problems."
Familiar with the politics and hierarchy of the herd, Virgil is not. Oh, he knew that there was generally a stallion to a herd, as a protector of sorts. Mares called the shots though; they always did. Fine by him. He had no idea that she was a leader though, and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Well, I'd really hate to disrupt your herd. I'm not tryin' to be a nuisance 'er anything like that, ma'am. Um, I s'pose maybe I should be off, then? I didn't see much on my way in here, and it's not like I haven't given a wolf a kick to the teeth before." Nodding his head in approval, Virgil flicked his tail and looked off in the opposite direction, ready to wander off if she didn't want him around, or ready to stick with her if she offered out of guilt, maybe. He doubted she would though, and wouldn't blame her either.
Eyeing him carefully, Nukpana finally snorts. "You're an idiot," she says as she suddenly turns and starts heading back to the herd. It's not quite the same direction she came from because she was cantering in a circle and not straight away from the herd - she knows better than to get too far away. The surprising thing, though is her pace: a trot. He ought to be able to keep up with that, no matter how tired he is... Still, she neither says goodbye or invites him to follow so it seems ambiguous at best.
"Why thank you, miss. I've certainly been called worse." He jokes, flicking his tail behind him and following behind at a slow walk for a moment, unsure of what exactly to do. He could leave, and risk being hunted down by wolves; he was quite tired and might not've held the speed he could carry with his rider jabbing spurs into his sides for motivation. Or, he could follow her and risk whatever not-so-pleasant 'greetings' that this other stallion might offer. Ambiguous, it was. With a snort, Virgil cups his ears forward, and finally picks up his pace to trot a few strides behind the blood bay mare.
Nukpana - Female Horse
Virgil - Male Horse
Setting:
Grassy Plains
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By far the greatest benefit of the plains, at least in Nukpana's opinion, is the space. It seemed like in the woodlands you couldn't go more than a few strides without a tree getting in the way. The large blood bay mare is taking full advantage of that space to satisfy her urge to run, though she's keeping herself down to a medium canter so that she doesn't totally exhaust herself. She's had this dream of seeing how far and how fast she can go, but she knows it's foolishness to try with the possibility of wolves coming by. Her sides are flecked with sweat but she ignores it, instead reveling in the feel of the wind.
It'd been a long, long time that he'd been running. So long in fact, that he'd lost count of the hours. Only a few times along the way did he stop, but it wasn't very often. They light grey stallion had come a long way from even further west than this location, the back of his hide still stained with his rider's blood and bits of his legs and chest splattered with the crimson coloration as well, from others being shot with the strange sticks of the humans. Luckily, he'd made it out alive. Not a single shot had hit him, and he was a very, very lucky one for that. Still with the heavy saddle lining his back and with the bridle still in his mouth, Virgil's eyes widened when he saw a glimpse of a figure not much unlike himself in the distance, and let out a loud sort of grunting neigh; more of desperation than of greeting. He needed a safe area to stop in, he couldn't run forever. The knot at the end of the reins had fallen along his withers, but finally, after a day of running, the knot had come lose and from his own running motion, a strap came flying downward, just under his hoof. With all of his weight on a rein, the bit in his mouth was tugged lose, and he was finally able to shake the brow-bane off from under his forelock. It landed with a heavy 'thud', and he stopped; finally. Panting a bit, he looked around to find the other horse, wherever it was, and luckily she wasn't moving too fast. "Hey! You! Can you help me a minute?" He called out tiredly, his voice strong despite his obvious fatigue.
The neigh easily attracts Nukpana's attention, but aside from a quick twist of her head in his direction she's slow to respond. That sounded like a stallion; probably the last thing she'd like to run into. But the exact note of it makes her curious. She debates for a moment before she changes course to one that will bring her to him. But she doesn't change speed, instead taking a moment to see what she can tell about him before she comes close. Though the scent of humans is unfamiliar to her, after a moment she realizes what he's wearing. She's never seen it, of course, but she knows what tack is thanks to her mother's descriptions and she quickly guesses his origins. Bringing herself to a stop just barely within easy talking distance, if you raise your voice just a little, she snorts and says, "You're a human's horse." It's an accusation, and she hardly looks ready to do more than stare at him suspiciously.
"/Was/.. a human's horse, ma'am." He calls out to her, standing where he was. He'd been around these 'wild' types before, and had of course been the means of his rider lassoing a few of them, and soon enough they were a part of the gang's calvary as well. In other words, he knew not to push his luck. He needed help, not for her to get uppity and leave him there. Oh, the saddle had been on for a while; since some time the night previous if his memory served. "Look, I'm not tryin' to bug ya or nothin', but I need someone to help me get this damned thing off." With no rider, he didn't want the saddle on. It wasn't as if he particularly minded the weight. Virgil had been quite used to it by now. It was just.. well, he didn't /need/ it anymore. "My name's Virgil, by the way."
That clarification seems to do nothing to ease the large mare's suspicions. "So I see," Nukpana says dryly, as she eyes the saddle. She pauses for a long moment, trying to decide exactly what she should do about this situation. Eventually, however, she makes up her mind and approaches him slowly, glaring at him with her ears pinned back as she nears his head before stopping to examine the saddle. It's not hard for her to see that the girth is the weak point and her sharp teeth should be able to at least weaken it. "You can pay me back with your story," she says, her tone practically an order, before she starts biting at the girth. She makes a show of being rough about it, but she's actually careful to avoid biting him instead.
Watching her carefully, he turns a bit to try to avoid her when he sees the glare, but realizes shortly thereafter that she's just.. maybe a moody one. No big deal. Nodding his head gently, he lets out a long sigh, and flicks his tail so that it hits his right side instead of his left. A grin forms, and one ear perks forward while the other listens for lingering predatory threats. "Ahh, so you are interested in humans, huh?" He asks, trying to help her by sort of tugging his side away while she bites down, but it doesn't seem to work that well. However good of a job she was doing with the girth of the saddle, he couldn't really tell. It still felt tight around his abdomen. "Fair enough, I suppose. But, what's your name, miss?"
By design, girths are tough. However, those who make them assume that someone will keep an eye on the horse wearing one and prevent an extensive assault such as the one that Nukpana is launching. Still, it will probably take her some time. The first question causes her to pause and flick her tail in irritation. "I know far more about humans than I'd like to," she says with a snort, "I want to know how you got into this mess." She starts right back at it again, not wanting this to take any longer than it has to. When asked for her name, she simply replies, "Nukpana," between bites.
"You make it sound like they're all bad." Virgil comments, though his tone is neutral. "There are a lot of bad men, but there are also a lot of good men. My owner was a good man." He says, giving his ears a flick and shaking his head, a scoff being heard afterwards. "His own kind didn't see him that way, though. Killed him, and killed some of the other horses there too. Can't say why, though. They sure are strange things." He says, apparently in heavy thought about it, as his eyes had wandered to the open expanse of land for a while, there. After a few more seconds, he could feel that the saddle didn't feel quite as tight, and glanced back. "I can't thank you enough for your help, Nukpana. But.. thank you very much."
"I assume you've never been wild before?" Nukpana says as she pauses to check her work, "My mother was born among humans. 'Good' humans, you might say - they took good care of her. But it changed her. She was hardly a horse when I knew her." She bites at the weak point that she created a few more times before she backs up and says, "Try rolling or something. That shouldn't hold now. And you can save your thanks - I wouldn't wish a saddle on anyone." Well, maybe on Lootah. Oh, and Orion's father definitely! But not one someone who hasn't actually given her a reason to hate them yet.
Her assumption was actually false, to an extent. "Naw, not really. I was born wild, I guess. Wasn't long before I was in with a bunch'a other mares, some colts and such. Few geldings.. poor guys. Not many stallions, though. They only kept the /best/ stallions, where I was." He says, with a hint of bragging in his voice, but it was passed off with a chuckle. "It really ain't such a bad thing. Not much weight to it, and it saves the men from tuggin' on your mane." Taking a step away, he gives his entire body a rough shake, loosening the girth some more, but eventually he does keel down to his knees, and gives himself a good roll on the one side. A loud, harsh 'rip' sound, and he stood up again, the saddle and all of the dead owner's items; live ammo included, falling off his back and being left on the ground. "Much better!" Virgil said, giving a satisfied sort of whuffle afterward, before he looked back to her. "So.. what exactly did you care to know, Miss? 'Bout the men in general, er.. what happened to get me here, er what?"
Watching and listening with an expression that's half hostility and half curiosity, Nukpana snorts at the comment about geldings. She doesn't really know what one is, aside from the vague description her mother gave. Bizarre not-quite-stallions... But she hardly thinks that the horses that fit a human's criteria for 'best' would match hers. "You've already told me most of what I want to know, actually," she answers, "I don't care to hear your whole life's story." She pauses and considers for a moment before she adds, "I just want to know what the odds are that you'll die the moment I leave you alone, or if you'll be running off to find another human to take care of you." That's the honest truth, actually, though of course phrased in the most unpleasant way possible. Not that she actually cares about him; she just wants to know what she can expect from this stallion. She supposes it will really depend on how much he remembers from his colt days.
Some would find the feisty mare's hostility off putting. It rather amuses Virgil however, and he gives another light hearted chuckle before speaking again. "Well that's just fine then, 'cause I don't particularly care to tell it either." Boring, is how he'd describe it. But to an interested feral horse with curiosity about the bi-pedal creatures, well, they might find it interesting. "Naw, miss. I think I'll be just fine now. I didn't get hurt 'er nothin' on the way out here." He says, and scuffs his hoof against the ground idly. "I guess just.. having company would be nice. I reckon there's an awful lot of wolves and other nuisances out here and uh.. well, I think a horse all out here by his lonesome might draw some attention."
"Well, that's the real question, isn't it?" Nukpana says with an arrogant toss of her head, "Do I run off and leave you to fend for yourself, or do I not bother with all that and just show you where my herd is?" And to judge by how she continues to eye him speculatively, she hasn't quite made up her mind just yet. There are some rather hefty pros and cons to weigh, and several reasons why the decision might not even matter. It's only now that she holds her head in that high, authoritative curve that indicates that she either thinks very much of herself or she's a lead mare. The truth is, of course, that she's /both/.
"Seems my life is in your hands, miss." He says with a sort of playful toss of his head as well. She was an interesting one, this Nukpana. He liked her already what with her helping remove the saddle, and had a sneaking suspicion that she'd let him stick around. With her, with a herd, it didn't matter, he just didn't want to be left alone. Virgil wasn't scared, just cautious and not suicidal. "You don't have to worry about me making a mess of things; just 'cause I'm not quite a wild one like you don't mean I don't know how to keep quiet."
The truth of the matter is that Nukpana simply doesn't know what to make of him. A stallion like Lootah is easy to deal with: she hates him, he hates her, simple as that. Sirocco is slightly more complicated: she mostly ignores him, he lets her ignore him, and everyone's happy. This Virgil, however, doesn't seem put off by her at all, and she just doesn't know what to do about that. Maybe she just needs to try harder. After a moment of silence, she starts to put some of her thoughts into words, to see if he has any comments on them, "I'm not worried about predators; if you're weak then they'll kill you and I won't have to worry about you again. But you could disrupt my herd, and I don't like that. I don't know what our stallion would make of you, and if he doesn't want you around and you stay anyway then it would only cause problems."
Familiar with the politics and hierarchy of the herd, Virgil is not. Oh, he knew that there was generally a stallion to a herd, as a protector of sorts. Mares called the shots though; they always did. Fine by him. He had no idea that she was a leader though, and gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Well, I'd really hate to disrupt your herd. I'm not tryin' to be a nuisance 'er anything like that, ma'am. Um, I s'pose maybe I should be off, then? I didn't see much on my way in here, and it's not like I haven't given a wolf a kick to the teeth before." Nodding his head in approval, Virgil flicked his tail and looked off in the opposite direction, ready to wander off if she didn't want him around, or ready to stick with her if she offered out of guilt, maybe. He doubted she would though, and wouldn't blame her either.
Eyeing him carefully, Nukpana finally snorts. "You're an idiot," she says as she suddenly turns and starts heading back to the herd. It's not quite the same direction she came from because she was cantering in a circle and not straight away from the herd - she knows better than to get too far away. The surprising thing, though is her pace: a trot. He ought to be able to keep up with that, no matter how tired he is... Still, she neither says goodbye or invites him to follow so it seems ambiguous at best.
"Why thank you, miss. I've certainly been called worse." He jokes, flicking his tail behind him and following behind at a slow walk for a moment, unsure of what exactly to do. He could leave, and risk being hunted down by wolves; he was quite tired and might not've held the speed he could carry with his rider jabbing spurs into his sides for motivation. Or, he could follow her and risk whatever not-so-pleasant 'greetings' that this other stallion might offer. Ambiguous, it was. With a snort, Virgil cups his ears forward, and finally picks up his pace to trot a few strides behind the blood bay mare.