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06-11-2013, 05:33 PM
Jade eyes watched the snow, alert for movement with a hunter's keen edge. Permeating cold had spiked the dragon's hunger, and he was forever on the lookout for prey, small animals whose coats had turned ivory for camouflage against the snow. It was more difficult to do so from a horse's swaying back, but at least this perch allowed him to conserve energy while scouting for his next meal. But it did force him to look farther out more often, when he wasn't watching for some creature fleeing from the possibility of being crushed beneath an unwary hoof.
Movement, there, quickly stifled. A dark head lifted, breaking cover from the nearly as dark coat of the mare he rested upon, disturbing the outline they had presented. The movement had been too big to be mouse or hare or pheasant. Deer? But no, those didn't change colors with the seasons. Wait, there! Horse, unicorn, ice-king, Mauja. It was a series of realizations that echoed through the bond as images colored by emotion.
A neutral image of a white horse, then another of the same horse with a horn tacked on. Then a mixed flurry surrounding the image of a crystal crown, which was then plunked on the horned horse. By the second image Smoke was slowing, stopping. Wary curiosity rose in her as she turned to seek him out herself. Mauja, lord of the Basin, lord over the stallion who had slain Solstice. And yet Mauja, that ever polite stallion with whom she'd never personally had an issue with.
Twice they'd met, face to face, before this. Once as leaders of two different herds meeting to smooth over misunderstandings. She had been alone, save for Zaffre, just as she was now, while he'd been accompanied by the feral Monster as bodyguard. Then again, after the invasion of the Edge, they had run across each other not all that far west of here. Then they had been alone, until a strange unicorn had shown up to make the encounter strange and yet somehow humorous. There was a strange coincidence that arose between them, that when they met someone was drawn in to hit on her. Perhaps that was why she wasn't afraid, standing there so blatantly obvious amidst the snow.
They'd never fought, had shared laughter, even while standing on opposite sides of a line others had drawn. Funny, how that sort of situation tended to arise in her life.
"Mauja?" She called out to him, voice inquisitive and friendly. Absently she wondered if he hadn't meant to be noticed, if he would turn away from her and walk away, severing this tenuous connection they shared. True, she'd told Roy that she and Mauja were not friends, only acquaintances. But... could they be friends, with all that hung between Basin and Edge?
Movement, there, quickly stifled. A dark head lifted, breaking cover from the nearly as dark coat of the mare he rested upon, disturbing the outline they had presented. The movement had been too big to be mouse or hare or pheasant. Deer? But no, those didn't change colors with the seasons. Wait, there! Horse, unicorn, ice-king, Mauja. It was a series of realizations that echoed through the bond as images colored by emotion.
A neutral image of a white horse, then another of the same horse with a horn tacked on. Then a mixed flurry surrounding the image of a crystal crown, which was then plunked on the horned horse. By the second image Smoke was slowing, stopping. Wary curiosity rose in her as she turned to seek him out herself. Mauja, lord of the Basin, lord over the stallion who had slain Solstice. And yet Mauja, that ever polite stallion with whom she'd never personally had an issue with.
Twice they'd met, face to face, before this. Once as leaders of two different herds meeting to smooth over misunderstandings. She had been alone, save for Zaffre, just as she was now, while he'd been accompanied by the feral Monster as bodyguard. Then again, after the invasion of the Edge, they had run across each other not all that far west of here. Then they had been alone, until a strange unicorn had shown up to make the encounter strange and yet somehow humorous. There was a strange coincidence that arose between them, that when they met someone was drawn in to hit on her. Perhaps that was why she wasn't afraid, standing there so blatantly obvious amidst the snow.
They'd never fought, had shared laughter, even while standing on opposite sides of a line others had drawn. Funny, how that sort of situation tended to arise in her life.
"Mauja?" She called out to him, voice inquisitive and friendly. Absently she wondered if he hadn't meant to be noticed, if he would turn away from her and walk away, severing this tenuous connection they shared. True, she'd told Roy that she and Mauja were not friends, only acquaintances. But... could they be friends, with all that hung between Basin and Edge?
