Chaos. In unfurled with great imperativeness all around him. It was difficult to focus his mentations on the task at hand when so much was occurrent in the world before him in that one prolonged instant: the overpowering aroma of smoke dense in the air whilst the auditory sensation of metal wrought blades colliding rang throughout it, clashing fiercely against his eardrum; the relentless thunder of hooves striking the soil and the panicked trumpeting of horses as they fell to the cold ground, never to rise again; the maverick movements of the rider atop his broad back and the tug of the reins against the coldness of the bit that violated his mouth; the utterances of tempestuous voices, piercing the air with their enraged vocalisms; the never ending chorus of nonresonant metallic armor as their sleek, argent contours clanked together. But despite this he was ever collected, executing the duty that was mandatory of him with miraculous composure.

He had been trained for this moment his entire life, instructed to be calm when it seemed an impossible task. Truthfully, his entire being screamed to run, flee the pandemonium that encompassed him, but he forced himself to stay. After all, it was natural equine instinct to take flight at the first sign of peril, but there was nothing natural about horses involved in human warfare, and therefore nothing about his life had ever been natural.

Quite suddenly, the cold sensation of a blade constituted upon his skin. Promptly then a shooting pain as the acute, piercing edge separated the delicate fibers of his hide then prevailed across the side of his girth and the muscular realm of his shoulder, exposing the corpuscle rich plasma that coursed through the capillaries in his flesh. Intense pain shot through the nerves. His armored head jerked backward abruptly in reception to the affliction, followed swiftly and with little hesitance by his forelegs and soon the entire prow of his body was suspended in the air. Head thrashing wildly, he pawed the sky with dished hooves, threatening to tear a hole in its gloomy, cloud-veiled conformations as he rose continuously and slightly favored the dexral region of his physique. The cincture of the saddle had been instantaneously slashed, and as the obsidian brute reared, gravity forced his passenger to plummet to the ground. Weight proceeded to transfer upward, and as the knight's fingers slipped from the reins, the stallion's balance inevitably faltered, and he too succumbed to the undeniable whims of gravity. A panic-stricken whinny burst from his ragged lips in distress just before he struck the ground.

Shock. It polluted his mind. A burning pain teemed around the fresh wound as he hoisted his head from the dirt, dark eyes urgently absorbing his surroundings. His rider desperately attempted to get to his feet, hands reaching pressingly for flimsy reins. Ascendancy eventually ascended and regained his poise after many failed attempts to stand, thrashing his head violently, the whites of his eyes clearly evident, and composed a few half-rears as the human finally grasped the flailing reins within the palm of his hand. He raised his arms into the air and sounded his voice as if trying to soothe the stallion. The endeavor was in vain. The beast's vexatious spirit could not be quelled. Not then. The man was knocked off his feet by the aimless, frantic wanderings of a loose horse as it galloped past, unintentionally striking him in the shoulder and dealing a hefty blow. In response, Ascendancy took to his heels, viciously eating up the ground with long, sweeping strides. He wasn't sure where he was going. All he knew was that he was getting out of there, away from that place.

Adrenaline. It coursed like ice water through his veins. He could but scantily feel the wounds that marred his ebony hide as he galloped, powerful limbs churning like the wheels of a runaway locomotive - through the blinding flashes and the deafening eruptions of explosives; through the flames that licked the earth, consuming everything in its igneous path. Smoke funneled from his trembling nostrils, for the air was cool as night transcended upon the world despite the ruthless heat of the day. The gaping lesion that adorned his barrel seeped with thick cerise fluid, but the pain was only a morsel. The true damage that had been done could not be foretold. The tribulation was numbed by epinephrine. He wasn't concerned about that, though. His thoughts were of escape and survival: making it out of that hell hole with his life still intact.

In the midst of the dark sky hung the moon from the scintillating stars which surrounded it. It was burning brightly - a full circle, guiding a lost warrior through the darkness of the night. His muscles rolled and rippled, playing an almost serene melody beneath his shadowy hide. His legs bent and flexed like rods of hot metal under his tattered body, his powerful haunches propelling himself easily across the terrain. Steadily he gained his composure, but he had covered a great distance. Decelerating his pace, he looked around. Where was he? He was lost, that much was certain. "Fuck!" He exclaimed to himself, scanning the area for any sign of another life form that might have been in the vicinity. A fleeting feeling of helplessness washed over him, but he quickly thrust it aside. Now was no time for such thoughts. He needed to focus on finding his way home, though it appeared he would have to spend this night in solitude, vulnerable, in a land he was in no way familiar with. His senses were going haywire, sharpened slightly due to his anxiety. He could smell other equines in the distance, their fragrances faint, but identifiable. It was likely they were no where close to him.

Or maybe he was mistaken.

His ears shot forward, erect upon the summit of his head as the dissonance of a snapping twig caused him to freeze where he stood. There was another being lurking in the shadows. Muscles lay tense beneath jet black skin as his breathing became slightly more arduous, the scent of another suddenly growing very distinct as it danced through his flared nostrils. "Who's there? Reveal yourself." He demanded, his raspy voice booming toward the stranger and shattering the eerie silence that washed over the Threshold.