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11-04-2013, 08:26 PM
"Afraid of decision, I buried my finer feelings in the depths of my heart and they died there."
It was curiosity that brought him there, curiosity and a rare kind of boredom.
It had been a few days since he'd wandered into the blistering world – Helovia, he reminded himself again, the feel of it still unfamiliar – and other than the stallions who had stopped him in the Threshold, he'd seen nobody, spoken with no one else.
Forests he'd seen, foothills he'd climbed, beaches drew him in frequently – but the feel of this marsh was something new. It reminded him of Phlegethon, and the feeling made him colder than the weather would warrant; but there was something else, a mystery to the place that his homeland had lacked.
The chestnut's nose and instincts told him to beware, but solitude had brought a strange recklessness into him, and he continued forward, near enough to the mirror-still water's edge. There was the buzz of insects, the low-throated croak of bullfrogs, but no wind stirred the trees, and Gabriel figured himself alone again.
Until there came a splash.
His head lifted, ears swiveling first in suprise and then concern, and through the haze of heat and marsh he made out a dark figure, slender and no larger than a doe. Until he could make out features and the horn on her head he thought it was a deer; once he saw it to be a horse he continued forward. She looked safe enough, for the moment, and he felt his heartbeat slow from it's momentary gallop.
“You're young to be here, aren't you?” he asked, and moved nearer, hooves pulling through the mud, pausing just a moment before bumping his muzzle against her shoulder. It was to reassure the both of them – but Gabriel doubtlessly needed it more than she did.
If Sundog and Quill were here, if he hadn't left them behind – well, they'd be the same age as this filly.
And he wouldn't want them anywhere near this place.
gabriel
