The light of day weakened and began to shrink away from the earth, compressing into bold lines of color and a single golden ball that rolled farther down the horizon with each passing minute. Darkness spilled across the land in inky tendrils, a monochromatic mirror to the sky’s neon aurora of pinks and oranges. Roused by the fading light, shadows began to wake.

They yawned as one, swelled within the confines of their daytime shackles and pushed outward, using their newfound strength to warp into impossible caricatures of the physical world. A stallion paused to watch, his eyes darting from one spreading stain to another. He lingered over the spectacle, derision tilting the corners of his mouth into an uncharacteristic grin as he watched his own dark imprint join the desperate crawl for freedom.

Each day the shadow stalked, harassed, and chided the stallion for this or for that and each night he watched its frantic struggle with a spiteful satisfaction. Total darkness had always granted the pair their independence, but not even the deeply seated resentment of an aberrant mind could deny the roan’s small sadness in those hours or the relief that came each morning when he woke to find the shadow firmly reattached. In a life of frenzied movement and jumbled memories it truly was his only constant.

One black rimmed ear twisted slowly in suspicion. There was nothing of the usual haphazard enthusiasm today. The shadow moved with an overt precision, narrowing down to a mere sliver and extending outward as far as it could reach, almost pointing. A flicker of contrast snapped the roan’s attention out beyond the range of silhouettes and suddenly the shadows meaning registered.

She was all ears and nostrils, head held high and tense. There were no white eyed witches to bolster her today, no shaggy champions to hide behind. The rangy, one winged mare was all alone and the fear of it lay plain across her face. A black, limitless hunger rumbled through the stallion’s bowels. It ricocheted through his bulky frame and emerged as a deep, rolling laugh.

Ears and lips folded away to nothing, making the long, angular head appear to be all teeth and wide, menacing eyes that stared with unnerving clarity. Reynier was a beast by every definition, but he was not the mindless barbarian some imagined. Unclouded by modern convention, he saw things for what they really were, not the projections they created. The mare had shown him weakness in the Threshold and she had shown him weakness here.

He charged forward.

Every muscle strained, flinging his heavy forelegs ahead as far as they could reach. He galloped headlong, never curbing the leverage between deeply flexed hocks and the ground they thrust against. Black hooves beat in rapid succession, counting down the shrinking meters between predator and prey.

Five. Four. Three.

The roan swung his head low, dropping one shoulder to dodge away from the head on collision and bring his approach to the mares left side. He paid in precious seconds for the maneuver, but it gave his raking eyes time to settle on the depression that marked her absent left wing. Scar tissue bubbled thick and discolored from the empty socket, forming a perfect bull’s eye for the stallion's attack.

He threw himself against the mark, neck inverting to raise his head and offer the broader surfaces of chest, neck, and upper forelegs as a battering ram.

He had seen the natural leanness that would give the mare mobility and speed, but she was fearful and she was imbalanced by the missing wing. Cowardice would be her way, retreat if possible. He could only hope the swiftness and brutality of his assault would be enough to land the blow and force her into combat.



Word Count: 631/800
Attack: 1/3

OOC: He charged directly at Africa, hoping to slam his full body weight into hers before she could fully react. In the last second of the approach he swung wide to her left, attempting to collide with her at the site of the removed left wing to cause localized pain as well as the generalized pain of being body slammed and so that if he did hit her and she did go down there would be a chance of her landing on the already damaged right wing, possibly causing more damage.

@[Africa]