The colt’s darkly rimmed orbs stared into Hasovir’s as he responded. “Mother says I’m marked like my father. He’s a King. He rules the World’s Edge.”

The words bled into Hasovir’s listeners. His brain paused as he focused in on the young unicorn’s words. ‘Marked like his father.’ Hasovir’s heart began beating wrathfully beneath his chest. This information – so vital – and this kid had no clue. Hasovir scoped out the colt’s pelt again: his white banding that mocked Hasovir’s but was faded like Tembovu’s own, the silver buckskin coloring that this colt’s golden hues tried to mask, the dark band that stood out on his sides and the dark streaks that fled from his eyes. ‘He’s a King. He rules the World’s Edge.’ The ending of this statement meant nothing to Hasovir momentarily, yet he did make a great, bold note of it. Involuntarily the stallion’s labrums tightened, his jaw clenched as the gears within his mind cranked away. Tembovu’s son. A trivial leer. Something advantageous, perchance?

Hasovir practically smelled the vanity that this fresh stud was feeling from saying his sire was a monarch. It made him nauseous, although Hasovir was just as arrogant, if not worse when he was a young gladiator…still a narcissist but much more tamed in now. The colt interacted with his companion; she seemed to respond to Hasovir’s last suggestion as she yipped and excitedly pounced on the unicorn’s pillars. This gave Hasovir a jovial feeling but his expression did not falter from the tight lip he had. The young stallion asked how to obtain a seal pup, to which Hasovir’s mind momentarily caught fury. ‘You hunt it, idiot.’ A voice that slipped in, answering within Hasovir’s head that gradually faded out with snickering. Hasovir took steps passed the colt; his withers surpassing the acquaintance by a mile, though Hasovir expected this new one to grow lengthy just by the looks of his legs. Peering out of the small inlet they had been in he detected down shore minute blobs that crawled along the rocks.

The sunlight hit the three o’clock mark, the heat index still battling Frostbreath Steppe’s aggressive winds that would quickly sweep away any cloud coverage. Hasovir’s bodice was completely dried out now, his pelt smelling of salt and sweet kelp and his sun-bleached threads impersonating the zephyr. “There,” His baritone voice struck through the volume that the gusts had been causing. He looked over his right shoulder at the cub and grinned while speaking, “We begin with the trek.” It was about a mile and a half hike, he used his visionaries like a periscope, noting that his sight had yet to fail him. There were a dozen or more by the rock-strewn beach. Hasovir thought about how mothers usually hunted and left their young for periods of time – this was a piece of cake, especially with the three of them.

With his thoughts blundering together with the voices, Hasovir’s mind was quite full. He was indeed thinking too many things at once, like how he was about to go hunting with possibly Tembovu’s son for instance. ‘Could he really be…that would explain the smell of bloodline…I could find him…’ Did Hasovir really want to seek out his brother? And for what? Vengeance? Retaliation for the ridicule Tembovu had caused with his mere existence? If he was in fact a king, could that put Hasovir back in ranks? He felt a sour taste in his mouth from just thinking about teaming up with his so-called brother. Hasovir looked over his left shoulder now, at the colt. Tembovu’s offspring. His chasms traced the unicorn’s spine to his loosely spiraled single horn. Another sign of Tembovu.

With blood boiling from rage, Hasovir arched his serpentine in a gracious manner and snorted in anticipation to hunt. He tried with all he could to use the energy of hatred towards this next act: slaying a seal pup for a newly found friend’s companion. A friend. Yes. ‘A comrade. My prodigy.’ He smiled to himself for seeing a new light on the situation. The way the young one spoke about his sire, it seemed he did not personally know him, stating that is what his mother said. ‘Concentrate on the hunt for now.’ He told himself. With that he began a leisurely but strong stride towards the roaring seals.


@KIANZO