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11-04-2013, 03:05 PM
"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."
He's always been prone to wandering.
Since he was a colt along the banks of the dark river he wandered, slipping away from Benediction when he could (the stallion had been old, kind, and easy to evade), searching the shadows and shorelines of Phlegethon. No one disturbed him, because for all they knew he was the son of a queen and a god, and fear was as deep-set in the hearts of those that lived there as anger. In all that had happened since (lifetimes worth, he sometimes felt) he had never lost his taste for wandering.
It had started off as a search. Maybe it still was.
If that was the case, he couldn't say what he was looking for today (for he knew his north star would be nowhere in these woods), save maybe an excuse from the stifling heat beyond the trees. The whole world seemed to be an open mouth, hot and heavy and damp, and though the pines rose like bars against the sky, they were cooler. Cool enough to warrant pushing deeper.
This was not the kind of forest he knew. There was something unsettling about it, something the heaviness of the air seemed to add to; the scent of it was pervasive and thick and not unpleasant, the sharp tang of pine, the musty dankness of rotting foilage and earth. Undergrowth occasionally caught in his mane and tail, twigs and thorns pulled against his skin; he kept pushing on. He'd know the goal when he came to it.
It was first a rustling and then a snapping sound that tipped Gabriel off; the red stallion stopped and the sounds of the forest stopped around him. His unease transferred, however temporarily, to the area wildlife, and he felt he could hear the muted sounds of his own heartbeat. He was not afraid – he had never been one for fear – but there were beings that walked here, he knew, with capabilities far beyond his own, and thoughts far darker.
“I know you're there,” he said, low and slow and even, and he straightened, waiting for whoever – whatever – would emerge.
gabriel
