Post by avalikia on Jun 23, 2010 13:40:02 GMT -5
Characters:
Virgil - Male Horse
Nukpana - Female Horse
Setting:
Rolling Foothills
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After getting the official ceremonial boot from Sirocco, Virgil had taken his sweet time to get here, and he hadn't gotten very far at all. Not much time had passed, maybe an hour, maybe a little more, but the sun was only just beginning to even show signs of setting. With his tail only idly flicking at his sides by now, the gray stallion held his head rather low to the ground, his pace nary a walk as he slowed to sniff the grasses, seeing if there were any to his liking. A quick bite, and then he once again looked up, flicked his ears forward, and looked all around him. He couldn't see anything, and so he continued on, humming a little ditty that his owner used to hum every now and then when they were having a slow day.
After having left Virgil to his own devices, Nukpana was so irritated by the whole situation that she just couldn't get herself settled. She didn't fight with herself for too long, however, until she decided to go for a nice, long run. When she'd set off she hadn't intended to go quite this far, but often once she gets her legs moving it's just a release that she doesn't want to stop. Besides, she wouldn't imagine that Virgil would go this way - this would take him pretty much nowhere but the mountain. She's not going very fast - an easy canter that lets her feel the wind but doesn't tire her out too quickly. But the pace is quick enough that she doesn't catch his scent in the area very quickly.
Letting out a heavy sigh after the bit of grass is chewed up, one of his ears swivels back, and his neck follows. He doesn't appear to be startled, just aware of his surroundings. Always a good trait for any horse to have. A /natural/ trait, more importantly. In the distance he can see the bright red coloring of Nukpana's pelt, and grins mildly to himself. Well now, this wouldn't be her following him, would it? As big as his ego may have been, it wasn't that big. Something had to be up. Unless she was just running around, maybe. Or, unless she followed him to yell at him. With /that/ particular mare, that was certainly a possibility.
As it happens, Nukpana /is/ just running around. It's one of the few things that the large mare can be truthfully said to enjoy - pretty much everything else she either hates or tolerates. And when she finally catches scent and then sight of Virgil, she indicates which category she wishes he fell into with the scowl on her face. If she's honest with herself, she thinks she's starting to tolerate him a little too much so she's making an extra effort to make sure everyone knows she hates him, especially him. Her ears flick back and she stops very suddenly, looking back over her shoulder as if thinking about turning right back around.
Still keeping an eye on her, Virgil knows better than to start any conversation with the obviously upset mare. Whether or not he was the one that upset her though, he wasn't quite sure. He figured her to be the type to get upset at the littlest things, and she didn't seem at all shaken up about his very real, but very calmly delivered threats to her herd stallion, and the herd in general. Since passing her off had worked out well enough in the past, he does the same thing here; a snort, a scuff of his hoof, another smell at the grass, but otherwise the stallion flicks his blonde-gray tail, and continues to walk off without a word to her just yet.
Hesitating for only a moment longer, Nukpana tosses her head and trots the rest of the way over to Virgil. She doesn't come too close, however, before she says, "What are you doing over here? I thought you were going back to wherever it was that you came from." She knows that there's nothing much in this direction except for the mountain and, though she's never been that way herself, she knows that it's best to steer clear of it.
Keeping his eyes off of her, he continues walking away until she speaks to him, in which case he still doesn't look at her, but rather to the west and he stops walking. "I am. But I didn't get much of a chance to walk around since I've been through here, and thought I would 'fore I go back and get some two-leggeds to round y'all up." Afterward, he pauses, but then looks to her and grins. "I expect you've got a warning about stayin' away from the mountain too, right? Cougars? I know that much."
Snorting and shaking her head as she too comes to a halt, Nukpana notes, "Well, unless you want to go pay the cougars a visit, you're going the wrong way. Unless you've got a reason to not be that much in a hurry to have your revenge on the herd willing to give you a chance." Her tone makes it doubly clear that she's highly skeptical about Virgil's plans, and thinks he's being rather stupid on top of that. It's the same sort of tone a mother would use on a foal who said he was going off to find a wolf pack because it would 'sure show her'.
"I'm not goin' up the moutain 'er anything. Just having a walk around the place 'fore I get too far away. It's nice out here." He says, apparently finding nothing wrong with it. Must be because he's used to having a armed man making sure he and his horse were both safe. Without that luxury though, it was pretty dangerous to go any further south. "Didn't seem like I was particularly welcome there from the get-go, miss. You're 'bout the only one I could have a reasonable conversation with, and even then.. you've got your.. moments." Virgil says frankly, giving a dismissive sort of snort afterward, and bending his head down to get another bite of grass as well.
Though Nukpana would never breathe a word about it, knowing that they're even this close makes her just the slightest bit nervous. But she can easily fake enough confidence to look like she doesn't care. This is easily within walking distance of a cougar living in the mountains and night is drawing near. But since the stallion said he knew about the cougars she's not going to give him any more warning; let him figure it out one way or the other himself! Her tail flicks in irritation at his comments, "Only because you were complaining over everything and refusing to pay any attention to your superiors. What did you expect? That you could waltz in with nothing to recommend you and get treated like a king?"
A smirk appears again, and thinking back on his actions, Nukpana's interpretation was incorrect. "I didn't complain over everything. Only a few things, and in; what I thought was friendly conversation." He says, taking a few steps away from her and heading further south, just to see if maybe she'd follow him. A test, maybe. "And I was told to stay away from you mares, when was I expected to pay attention to ya?" The gray stallion knew that he'd crossed the line with Nukpana and Luna earlier; certainly with Sirocco, but prior to that he'd been a rather good guest of the herd.
Just as she suspected, talking to this stallion seems to be useless; not only does he not seem to understand, he doesn't seem to want to. Sighing loudly, she can be heard muttering mostly indistinctly to herself - something about human-headed horses. When Virgil steps away she makes no move to follow him, instead lifting a brow and saying, "So are you trying to tempt fate or mess with me?" Whatever his reasoning, it doesn't look like she'll be following him - she's even resting one of her hind legs.
Again, Virgil stops. This time though, he turns back and lets himself laugh at her concerns yet again. "I ain't too sure of that myself, miss." He says, then looks up the not too distant mountain, and gives his mane a shake. "I guess a little bit of both, though I wouldn't want to put a pretty little thing like you in harms way." As he says this, he begins to chuckle again, knowing full well that she was the type of mare to avoid trouble, and who would be able to handle herself in it anyway.
Her ears go back at that last part, "To not go looking for trouble is the /smart/ thing to do. And I'd expect that a horse your age would have that figured out by now. Too much trouble has a way of finding you anyway. But I don't know why I assume you'd have that figured out, after all you've had a human protecting you from the world most of your life. Normally for a horse to be alive at your age is a sign of /skill/." And it's clear from her tone that Nukpana believes that Virgil doesn't have anything of the sort.
Listening to her, Virgil looks as if he's bored with what she says, but he really does consider it. For a moment, at least. "Y'know, yer actin' as if I had a choice in the matter." He says, and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I've been with humans my whole life. Ain't my fault. But I wasn't one of those pampered fancy horses from out east 'er nothin' like that. We had a hard life too, y'know. Had to watch out for all sorts'a critters at night. We'd be awake when our riders were sleepin', had ta wake 'em if we heard anything. I know how ta' survive, and I ain't lookin' for trouble. Like I said, I'm not goin' up the mountain."
Nukpana is getting pretty bored with listening to Virgil herself. What he just described doesn't sound /that/ much different to her, aside from the critical component that if something dangerous turned up during the night it would be up to /her/ to deal with it. "If you really knew how to survive, you wouldn't treat this area as a tourist stop. But there I go again, giving you a warning you won't listen to because if anything dangerous shows up it'll be okay; your human will take care of it, just like he's always done. Well, except of course that he's /dead/ now." She shakes her head and snorts before she turns and starts walking more or less in the direction of her herd, muttering, "Just like my mother..."
"How many times do I have to tell ya; I'm /not/ going up the mountain. I know a little better'n that. So.. I am listenin' to ya. There ain't anythin' around here, or I would've heard it by now." Furrowing his brow a bit, he turns and takes a few steps toward her, making good his departure from the dangerous area. "What'd you care anyway? I don't get you." He says, and gives a scoff, flicking his ears back, and then forward again. "You feral types.."
Actually, Nukpana hasn't the slightest idea why she cares. All she knows is that she /does/ care, and that really bothers her. So instead of answering that question she responds to pretty much everything else he said. "If a cougar wants you, then you don't hear it. You smell it, or if you're lucky you see it," she says matter-of-factly as she slows her steps. "And I may know a lot about humans, but that doesn't mean I understand you at all," she says with a frown, "You don't act like a horse half the time."
What she said about cougar attacks was true enough. Cougars were a sneaky sort. Luckily for him, he'd traveled with a gang notorious for killing cougars and selling their pelts. Still didn't mean he would know of an attack without his human partner, however. So, he doesn't respond to this, much like how she didn't respond to one of his questions. Instead, he gives a shrug and another shake of his head. "Well, my apologies for that, miss. Never been around ferals so much. Only other horses I been around since I was a colt were the ones in the gang, and I s'pose they acted like their owners, too." Picking his pace up to a normal paced walk, he begins heading north again for the time being, to help lessen the mare's worry. "I'll get used to it, I guess."
"If you don't get yourself killed first," Nukpana can't help but add, though she notably makes a slight course correction to match his. It's nearly the right way for her to go for a short ways, after all, "I'd think that, since you're not used to being a wild horse, you'd pay more attention to what we do instead of acting like you know better than anyone. You can't blame us for thinking you're an idiot when you do that, can you?" She says with a snort, but actually manages to add with a little more understanding, "I suppose the way you act worked back where you came from."
Giving another chuckle, Virgil shakes his head and looks ahead, at where he's going instead up at the mountain or down at his hooves. "I didn't mean to act like I know better'n any of ya. Guess I'm just wishin' I could go back still, sorta. I like it out here, but.. it's.. very different." He knows that he'll need help, but he's not going to ask her for it. She was a lead mare of the very herd he'd just threatened after all, and he needed to make good on that threat. Or at least try. Clearing his throat, he stops to look around, looking rather confused. He knew he came from the west, but perhaps it was more north than he thought? Or more south? He couldn't remember. For the moment, he just looks.. puzzled.
Nukpana suppresses her negative reaction to Virgil wanting to go back. Of course he knows perfectly well how she feels about /that/ already so she doesn't need to repeat it again; instead she just flicks her ears back as if to remind him. "I'm sure it takes some getting used to, but it seems like you're standing in the river still. If you can't or don't want to go back, then come over to our side and don't look back - it'd save you a lot of trouble," she says. When he stops, she pauses and looks at him quizzically. "Now don't tell me you're lost," she says with a smirk as she takes in his expression and how he's looking around.
Keeping his puzzled expression, he keeps his eyes on Nukpana, and gives a few snorts and huffs as he tries to think back to where he came from, but addresses her first. "Thanks for the offer miss, but I don't reckon I'm too welcome in that area much no more. Not that your stallion has any effect on where I do or don't go, but I guess I'll give him the night to think he made an impact." He says nonchalantly, then looks toward the mountain again. "Ain't lost, nah. I know the way to go, it's just gettin' to that way that might cause a problem." Seeing her smirk, he blinks, and flicks his tail, but stays where he is. He wants to go south, but she seemed intent on /not/ going south. Going north went against his own curiosity, but was obviously the smarter, cougar-free choice. For the most part, anyway.
The way he responds actually seems to make Nukpana confused for a moment, before she laughs and says, "Oh, I'm not offering anything. The herd doesn't need more than one stallion, especially if they don't like eachother, so that's up to Sirocco; and I think he made his opinion on that pretty clear. I could try to influence things if I wanted to, but I don't. All I'm saying is that you still seem to have a hoof in the tame world, and you'd be doing yourself a favor if you gave that up. It didn't help you before and it /certainly/ won't help you now." Though she has no idea where to find humans, Nukpana does have a general idea of which direction Virgil needs to go first, but she's not about to tell him; she has at least three reasons not to.
"Oh, well." He says, maybe just a bit upset that there was no real offer for him to stay, but then again he certainly didn't, and shouldn't have expected anything of the sort. "Whatd'ya mean it didn't help me before? Of course it helped me before. It was my entire life before, and I survived just fine." He says, taking a step toward her and giving a glare, flicking his tail and then deciding on stepping toward the south. "It's kinda hard, changin' the entire way you live overnight, y'know."
"I mean it didn't help you with my herd," Nukpana explains, "It's probably why you weren't getting along, which really sucks for you. A stallion doesn't just let another stallion hang around on any basis everyday. You probably just blew any hope of an easy introduction to feral life; now it will be the crash course. Only thing I know is that if it were me I'd be going about it a /lot/ better." Clearly, glares are very ineffective tools for getting Nukpana to hold her tongue. They only cause her to hold her head higher and look at Virgil through narrowed eyes.
"Yeah, well.. I don't reckon herd life would be great for me anyway. Too many rules; I don't do good with rules, miss." He says, laughing a bit afterward. "Seems I always find a way to break 'em. Generally as quick as possible, too." Scuffing a hoof against the ground, he backs off from her again, and bends his neck down to take another bite of grass. Chewing it, he flicks his ears back and lets out a heavy sigh from his nostrils. "So. South would be cougar-land, I'd imagine. Too far north wouldn't get me no where.. I know I've gotta go west." Muttering this to himself, he glares up at the mountain, and gives a gruff sort of whicker. "I didn't pay this damned mountain any attention when I first got here.. when'd /it/ pop up?"
Snorting a little at that Nukpana says, "Following just a few rules would make your life a lot easier, you know. I tend to bend rules myself when they get in the way... Of course, it's too late for you to worry about that now. You've got a stupid, self-imposed quest for yourself now. One that's highly unlikely to get you anything except but another saddle for yourself. Of course, I suppose that's about the only option you've got since you're not thinking about this like a feral." Because Nukpana's quite sure that she could also do a better job of seeking revenge on a herd than Virgil too; of course, since this is /her/ herd they're talking about, she's not about to give him any ideas.
Virgil wasn't threatening the herd for revenge purposes. The only reason he even thought about threatening the herd was because it was just in his personality to do so. It was a challenge, and apparently one that he was comfortable with. It'd earn him a reputation; a bad one, and that was what he wanted. In a sense he was trying to live the life his owner led, just .. with among horses. "Might make it easier, but it'd back it a helluva lot less interesting, miss." He says, grinning and walking past her, finally deciding on heading south, to go around the mountain that way. "I ain't thinkin' 'bout it like a feral 'cause I'm not a feral. Not yet, I don't think. There's gotta be a way to uh.. earn yer' stripes around here, right?"
"Of course there is," Nukpana says with an eyeroll, "Thing is, if you somehow manage to succeed in getting humans to come here, anyone who wasn't caught would leave. And I must admit that there wouldn't be many of us left to spread word of your deeds - most of the herd is too young, old, or slow to have much of a chance." Though of course Nukpana herself would be perfectly fine. "Now, if you want anyone to care about you, and for it to /matter/, you'd probably have to do something more conventional. But here I go again giving advice you probably won't listen to even if you live long enough to take it," she adds, eyeing the direction he's headed. Shaking her head, she turns northeast at a walk. Any joy she'd get out of running has officially been spoiled.
"I'll take my chances." Virgil calls out, walking the opposite direction from her against her warnings, headed into cougar territory no matter the danger, just to satisfy his own curiosity and rather senseless need for thrillseeking. "Maybe I'll find another herd on my way back. Or another on the way here again. Just 'cause I didn't see one before didn't mean they weren't hidin' out 'er something. But, like I said, we'll see." For the time being though, he'd stick around here. He wouldn't wander too far out west or too far down south, he'd keep this area in mind and make a mental map of it. If he was going to make good on his threat, he'd need help. He knew that. "Thanks much for the advice ma'am, hopefully I'll see ya' again soon." Sooner than she might've thought, if he was going to be sticking around here.
Virgil - Male Horse
Nukpana - Female Horse
Setting:
Rolling Foothills
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After getting the official ceremonial boot from Sirocco, Virgil had taken his sweet time to get here, and he hadn't gotten very far at all. Not much time had passed, maybe an hour, maybe a little more, but the sun was only just beginning to even show signs of setting. With his tail only idly flicking at his sides by now, the gray stallion held his head rather low to the ground, his pace nary a walk as he slowed to sniff the grasses, seeing if there were any to his liking. A quick bite, and then he once again looked up, flicked his ears forward, and looked all around him. He couldn't see anything, and so he continued on, humming a little ditty that his owner used to hum every now and then when they were having a slow day.
After having left Virgil to his own devices, Nukpana was so irritated by the whole situation that she just couldn't get herself settled. She didn't fight with herself for too long, however, until she decided to go for a nice, long run. When she'd set off she hadn't intended to go quite this far, but often once she gets her legs moving it's just a release that she doesn't want to stop. Besides, she wouldn't imagine that Virgil would go this way - this would take him pretty much nowhere but the mountain. She's not going very fast - an easy canter that lets her feel the wind but doesn't tire her out too quickly. But the pace is quick enough that she doesn't catch his scent in the area very quickly.
Letting out a heavy sigh after the bit of grass is chewed up, one of his ears swivels back, and his neck follows. He doesn't appear to be startled, just aware of his surroundings. Always a good trait for any horse to have. A /natural/ trait, more importantly. In the distance he can see the bright red coloring of Nukpana's pelt, and grins mildly to himself. Well now, this wouldn't be her following him, would it? As big as his ego may have been, it wasn't that big. Something had to be up. Unless she was just running around, maybe. Or, unless she followed him to yell at him. With /that/ particular mare, that was certainly a possibility.
As it happens, Nukpana /is/ just running around. It's one of the few things that the large mare can be truthfully said to enjoy - pretty much everything else she either hates or tolerates. And when she finally catches scent and then sight of Virgil, she indicates which category she wishes he fell into with the scowl on her face. If she's honest with herself, she thinks she's starting to tolerate him a little too much so she's making an extra effort to make sure everyone knows she hates him, especially him. Her ears flick back and she stops very suddenly, looking back over her shoulder as if thinking about turning right back around.
Still keeping an eye on her, Virgil knows better than to start any conversation with the obviously upset mare. Whether or not he was the one that upset her though, he wasn't quite sure. He figured her to be the type to get upset at the littlest things, and she didn't seem at all shaken up about his very real, but very calmly delivered threats to her herd stallion, and the herd in general. Since passing her off had worked out well enough in the past, he does the same thing here; a snort, a scuff of his hoof, another smell at the grass, but otherwise the stallion flicks his blonde-gray tail, and continues to walk off without a word to her just yet.
Hesitating for only a moment longer, Nukpana tosses her head and trots the rest of the way over to Virgil. She doesn't come too close, however, before she says, "What are you doing over here? I thought you were going back to wherever it was that you came from." She knows that there's nothing much in this direction except for the mountain and, though she's never been that way herself, she knows that it's best to steer clear of it.
Keeping his eyes off of her, he continues walking away until she speaks to him, in which case he still doesn't look at her, but rather to the west and he stops walking. "I am. But I didn't get much of a chance to walk around since I've been through here, and thought I would 'fore I go back and get some two-leggeds to round y'all up." Afterward, he pauses, but then looks to her and grins. "I expect you've got a warning about stayin' away from the mountain too, right? Cougars? I know that much."
Snorting and shaking her head as she too comes to a halt, Nukpana notes, "Well, unless you want to go pay the cougars a visit, you're going the wrong way. Unless you've got a reason to not be that much in a hurry to have your revenge on the herd willing to give you a chance." Her tone makes it doubly clear that she's highly skeptical about Virgil's plans, and thinks he's being rather stupid on top of that. It's the same sort of tone a mother would use on a foal who said he was going off to find a wolf pack because it would 'sure show her'.
"I'm not goin' up the moutain 'er anything. Just having a walk around the place 'fore I get too far away. It's nice out here." He says, apparently finding nothing wrong with it. Must be because he's used to having a armed man making sure he and his horse were both safe. Without that luxury though, it was pretty dangerous to go any further south. "Didn't seem like I was particularly welcome there from the get-go, miss. You're 'bout the only one I could have a reasonable conversation with, and even then.. you've got your.. moments." Virgil says frankly, giving a dismissive sort of snort afterward, and bending his head down to get another bite of grass as well.
Though Nukpana would never breathe a word about it, knowing that they're even this close makes her just the slightest bit nervous. But she can easily fake enough confidence to look like she doesn't care. This is easily within walking distance of a cougar living in the mountains and night is drawing near. But since the stallion said he knew about the cougars she's not going to give him any more warning; let him figure it out one way or the other himself! Her tail flicks in irritation at his comments, "Only because you were complaining over everything and refusing to pay any attention to your superiors. What did you expect? That you could waltz in with nothing to recommend you and get treated like a king?"
A smirk appears again, and thinking back on his actions, Nukpana's interpretation was incorrect. "I didn't complain over everything. Only a few things, and in; what I thought was friendly conversation." He says, taking a few steps away from her and heading further south, just to see if maybe she'd follow him. A test, maybe. "And I was told to stay away from you mares, when was I expected to pay attention to ya?" The gray stallion knew that he'd crossed the line with Nukpana and Luna earlier; certainly with Sirocco, but prior to that he'd been a rather good guest of the herd.
Just as she suspected, talking to this stallion seems to be useless; not only does he not seem to understand, he doesn't seem to want to. Sighing loudly, she can be heard muttering mostly indistinctly to herself - something about human-headed horses. When Virgil steps away she makes no move to follow him, instead lifting a brow and saying, "So are you trying to tempt fate or mess with me?" Whatever his reasoning, it doesn't look like she'll be following him - she's even resting one of her hind legs.
Again, Virgil stops. This time though, he turns back and lets himself laugh at her concerns yet again. "I ain't too sure of that myself, miss." He says, then looks up the not too distant mountain, and gives his mane a shake. "I guess a little bit of both, though I wouldn't want to put a pretty little thing like you in harms way." As he says this, he begins to chuckle again, knowing full well that she was the type of mare to avoid trouble, and who would be able to handle herself in it anyway.
Her ears go back at that last part, "To not go looking for trouble is the /smart/ thing to do. And I'd expect that a horse your age would have that figured out by now. Too much trouble has a way of finding you anyway. But I don't know why I assume you'd have that figured out, after all you've had a human protecting you from the world most of your life. Normally for a horse to be alive at your age is a sign of /skill/." And it's clear from her tone that Nukpana believes that Virgil doesn't have anything of the sort.
Listening to her, Virgil looks as if he's bored with what she says, but he really does consider it. For a moment, at least. "Y'know, yer actin' as if I had a choice in the matter." He says, and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, I've been with humans my whole life. Ain't my fault. But I wasn't one of those pampered fancy horses from out east 'er nothin' like that. We had a hard life too, y'know. Had to watch out for all sorts'a critters at night. We'd be awake when our riders were sleepin', had ta wake 'em if we heard anything. I know how ta' survive, and I ain't lookin' for trouble. Like I said, I'm not goin' up the mountain."
Nukpana is getting pretty bored with listening to Virgil herself. What he just described doesn't sound /that/ much different to her, aside from the critical component that if something dangerous turned up during the night it would be up to /her/ to deal with it. "If you really knew how to survive, you wouldn't treat this area as a tourist stop. But there I go again, giving you a warning you won't listen to because if anything dangerous shows up it'll be okay; your human will take care of it, just like he's always done. Well, except of course that he's /dead/ now." She shakes her head and snorts before she turns and starts walking more or less in the direction of her herd, muttering, "Just like my mother..."
"How many times do I have to tell ya; I'm /not/ going up the mountain. I know a little better'n that. So.. I am listenin' to ya. There ain't anythin' around here, or I would've heard it by now." Furrowing his brow a bit, he turns and takes a few steps toward her, making good his departure from the dangerous area. "What'd you care anyway? I don't get you." He says, and gives a scoff, flicking his ears back, and then forward again. "You feral types.."
Actually, Nukpana hasn't the slightest idea why she cares. All she knows is that she /does/ care, and that really bothers her. So instead of answering that question she responds to pretty much everything else he said. "If a cougar wants you, then you don't hear it. You smell it, or if you're lucky you see it," she says matter-of-factly as she slows her steps. "And I may know a lot about humans, but that doesn't mean I understand you at all," she says with a frown, "You don't act like a horse half the time."
What she said about cougar attacks was true enough. Cougars were a sneaky sort. Luckily for him, he'd traveled with a gang notorious for killing cougars and selling their pelts. Still didn't mean he would know of an attack without his human partner, however. So, he doesn't respond to this, much like how she didn't respond to one of his questions. Instead, he gives a shrug and another shake of his head. "Well, my apologies for that, miss. Never been around ferals so much. Only other horses I been around since I was a colt were the ones in the gang, and I s'pose they acted like their owners, too." Picking his pace up to a normal paced walk, he begins heading north again for the time being, to help lessen the mare's worry. "I'll get used to it, I guess."
"If you don't get yourself killed first," Nukpana can't help but add, though she notably makes a slight course correction to match his. It's nearly the right way for her to go for a short ways, after all, "I'd think that, since you're not used to being a wild horse, you'd pay more attention to what we do instead of acting like you know better than anyone. You can't blame us for thinking you're an idiot when you do that, can you?" She says with a snort, but actually manages to add with a little more understanding, "I suppose the way you act worked back where you came from."
Giving another chuckle, Virgil shakes his head and looks ahead, at where he's going instead up at the mountain or down at his hooves. "I didn't mean to act like I know better'n any of ya. Guess I'm just wishin' I could go back still, sorta. I like it out here, but.. it's.. very different." He knows that he'll need help, but he's not going to ask her for it. She was a lead mare of the very herd he'd just threatened after all, and he needed to make good on that threat. Or at least try. Clearing his throat, he stops to look around, looking rather confused. He knew he came from the west, but perhaps it was more north than he thought? Or more south? He couldn't remember. For the moment, he just looks.. puzzled.
Nukpana suppresses her negative reaction to Virgil wanting to go back. Of course he knows perfectly well how she feels about /that/ already so she doesn't need to repeat it again; instead she just flicks her ears back as if to remind him. "I'm sure it takes some getting used to, but it seems like you're standing in the river still. If you can't or don't want to go back, then come over to our side and don't look back - it'd save you a lot of trouble," she says. When he stops, she pauses and looks at him quizzically. "Now don't tell me you're lost," she says with a smirk as she takes in his expression and how he's looking around.
Keeping his puzzled expression, he keeps his eyes on Nukpana, and gives a few snorts and huffs as he tries to think back to where he came from, but addresses her first. "Thanks for the offer miss, but I don't reckon I'm too welcome in that area much no more. Not that your stallion has any effect on where I do or don't go, but I guess I'll give him the night to think he made an impact." He says nonchalantly, then looks toward the mountain again. "Ain't lost, nah. I know the way to go, it's just gettin' to that way that might cause a problem." Seeing her smirk, he blinks, and flicks his tail, but stays where he is. He wants to go south, but she seemed intent on /not/ going south. Going north went against his own curiosity, but was obviously the smarter, cougar-free choice. For the most part, anyway.
The way he responds actually seems to make Nukpana confused for a moment, before she laughs and says, "Oh, I'm not offering anything. The herd doesn't need more than one stallion, especially if they don't like eachother, so that's up to Sirocco; and I think he made his opinion on that pretty clear. I could try to influence things if I wanted to, but I don't. All I'm saying is that you still seem to have a hoof in the tame world, and you'd be doing yourself a favor if you gave that up. It didn't help you before and it /certainly/ won't help you now." Though she has no idea where to find humans, Nukpana does have a general idea of which direction Virgil needs to go first, but she's not about to tell him; she has at least three reasons not to.
"Oh, well." He says, maybe just a bit upset that there was no real offer for him to stay, but then again he certainly didn't, and shouldn't have expected anything of the sort. "Whatd'ya mean it didn't help me before? Of course it helped me before. It was my entire life before, and I survived just fine." He says, taking a step toward her and giving a glare, flicking his tail and then deciding on stepping toward the south. "It's kinda hard, changin' the entire way you live overnight, y'know."
"I mean it didn't help you with my herd," Nukpana explains, "It's probably why you weren't getting along, which really sucks for you. A stallion doesn't just let another stallion hang around on any basis everyday. You probably just blew any hope of an easy introduction to feral life; now it will be the crash course. Only thing I know is that if it were me I'd be going about it a /lot/ better." Clearly, glares are very ineffective tools for getting Nukpana to hold her tongue. They only cause her to hold her head higher and look at Virgil through narrowed eyes.
"Yeah, well.. I don't reckon herd life would be great for me anyway. Too many rules; I don't do good with rules, miss." He says, laughing a bit afterward. "Seems I always find a way to break 'em. Generally as quick as possible, too." Scuffing a hoof against the ground, he backs off from her again, and bends his neck down to take another bite of grass. Chewing it, he flicks his ears back and lets out a heavy sigh from his nostrils. "So. South would be cougar-land, I'd imagine. Too far north wouldn't get me no where.. I know I've gotta go west." Muttering this to himself, he glares up at the mountain, and gives a gruff sort of whicker. "I didn't pay this damned mountain any attention when I first got here.. when'd /it/ pop up?"
Snorting a little at that Nukpana says, "Following just a few rules would make your life a lot easier, you know. I tend to bend rules myself when they get in the way... Of course, it's too late for you to worry about that now. You've got a stupid, self-imposed quest for yourself now. One that's highly unlikely to get you anything except but another saddle for yourself. Of course, I suppose that's about the only option you've got since you're not thinking about this like a feral." Because Nukpana's quite sure that she could also do a better job of seeking revenge on a herd than Virgil too; of course, since this is /her/ herd they're talking about, she's not about to give him any ideas.
Virgil wasn't threatening the herd for revenge purposes. The only reason he even thought about threatening the herd was because it was just in his personality to do so. It was a challenge, and apparently one that he was comfortable with. It'd earn him a reputation; a bad one, and that was what he wanted. In a sense he was trying to live the life his owner led, just .. with among horses. "Might make it easier, but it'd back it a helluva lot less interesting, miss." He says, grinning and walking past her, finally deciding on heading south, to go around the mountain that way. "I ain't thinkin' 'bout it like a feral 'cause I'm not a feral. Not yet, I don't think. There's gotta be a way to uh.. earn yer' stripes around here, right?"
"Of course there is," Nukpana says with an eyeroll, "Thing is, if you somehow manage to succeed in getting humans to come here, anyone who wasn't caught would leave. And I must admit that there wouldn't be many of us left to spread word of your deeds - most of the herd is too young, old, or slow to have much of a chance." Though of course Nukpana herself would be perfectly fine. "Now, if you want anyone to care about you, and for it to /matter/, you'd probably have to do something more conventional. But here I go again giving advice you probably won't listen to even if you live long enough to take it," she adds, eyeing the direction he's headed. Shaking her head, she turns northeast at a walk. Any joy she'd get out of running has officially been spoiled.
"I'll take my chances." Virgil calls out, walking the opposite direction from her against her warnings, headed into cougar territory no matter the danger, just to satisfy his own curiosity and rather senseless need for thrillseeking. "Maybe I'll find another herd on my way back. Or another on the way here again. Just 'cause I didn't see one before didn't mean they weren't hidin' out 'er something. But, like I said, we'll see." For the time being though, he'd stick around here. He wouldn't wander too far out west or too far down south, he'd keep this area in mind and make a mental map of it. If he was going to make good on his threat, he'd need help. He knew that. "Thanks much for the advice ma'am, hopefully I'll see ya' again soon." Sooner than she might've thought, if he was going to be sticking around here.