No Time for Lies and Empty Fights
His face lowered; regal cranium suspended by the curve of an elegant crest, though neither did he intend to portray. Long ears divided then as he stepped from their meeting point; the left pricked forward (alert and sensitive to those murmurs surrounding), and the right reclined into the loose tangles of gilt-orange, fire strewn mane that looped languidly through the cool fingering breeze. With soldier’s concentration, roused senses drew in the complexities of the bleak world around him- and that individual who dithered behind, testing his honesty; challenging those wraiths closer. Hector didn’t glance back; those of her kind were not the priority pressed upon him, though leave her ignorant he could not- the journey south would be long and difficult, and he could only pray that those ghouls caught no wind of their passing through.
‘She follows!’ His conscience; the spectre, boomed, and the giant’s slack ear shot forward to join his brother on guard. Veci slipped from the length of her tail, entwining his vapour form between the swing of her stride as it quickened to follow. Faster still, he rose like a thin cloud around her, and wafted forward to ride idly the stallion’s slipstream.
He guided them from the refuge of the forest soon after, the full moon lighting for them a path unmarred by those already undead; taken and torn. Hector paused first by the skirt of trees to assess, his partner drifting out brazenly in unison with the wind which howled through the vast lonely openness of the area. "Mind our path, Veci… We travel south. May the wind lift our haste.” Haunches clenched; teeth began to grind silently within the flesh of his taut jaw and wings peeled apart from the sweat freckled line of his barrel to balance the action of his considerable bulk thrusting forward. “Fast now…!”
Through the night he ran, the whipping meadow-grass a blur as he barrelled through its lethargic, rolling sea- and he strained often to find the drum of hooves following; the whisper of wicked laughter, should the wraiths be closing in. Veci travelled silently though, his composed presence a relief when uncertainty clouded the eyes, and dread burned the mind.
And he leapt through the last of the field too, breath heaving; skin trembling with hope- ‘You’ve made it! You’re there!’ The final leg wore heavily upon his brawny knees, the clay packed earth had seen no rain for months apparently; it was dry and unbending as his great hooves pounded across. An ocean of hissing grass swallowed him briefly- the northern fringe, but it thinned and dissolved again as he neared the Heart’s centre.
The quickest of glances was spared for the molten lake as he passed to the left, but he paused not to bask in its comforting glow; instead delving into that same ocean which now bordered the southern side. No sooner did the grass dwindled again, and the great gaping fissure opened beneath him; the doorway to heaven, the exit from hell. Knees stiffened suddenly and a mist of powder-red dust swarmed about him. Turning he sought the mare who he prayed had kept comparative pace with his enormous gait. "Safety lies beneath."
Then down he took her, into the first chamber which lay near empty- those refugees who had huddled so miserably for the first few nights had delved deeper at last, and found solace in the beauty of the Glowing Room. Hector turned at long last, recovering still from the stress of the journey- but he offered a small smile when his tangerine gaze fell once more on the unnerving loveliness of her eyes.
[ooc: feel no obligation to stay with Dragon’s Throat, if it doesn’t suit <3 I fell in love with Morana and just had to answer her Threshold post :)]
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[O] Those oblivious, and those who just don't care [Morana, Open]
