ÖDE

He hadn't forgotten the task Thranduil had assigned him. Winter's wrath had kept him mostly holed up in the mountains, but with the retreat of frost and the first melt of spring, Öde gradually crept free. He couldn't shake the tiger colored mare from his mind, especially since he hadn't gotten to properly speak to her at the gathering, not with so many about. Still, she intrigued him, and for more than her undeniable beauty and equally irrefutable strangeness. Her rank is what drew him to her, and it was perfect for what he needed.

Though, herd politics were standing a bit in his way. So was the ocean.

Tilting his head Öde regarded the water that yawned between his stance on the mainland and the distant, though observable shore of the desert island ahead of him. Vaguely he could make out shapes on the sands beyond, particularly amid the sky. Beside him a monumental pillar stood, its design solid and ornate. He observed it with a certain amount of distrust, familiar with what his land's sentinel was capable of. Surely it couldn't work the same way though, not when he couldn't even physically cross the Throat's borders. "And we're the reclusive herd?" he asked the wind in mild disbelief and amusement; the kind of humor that is born of frustration and exhaustion. He had spent days traveling here, and now to run into this simple act of defiance by nature, he couldn't fulfill his destiny.

Unwilling to leave, Öde belted out a loud neigh, hoping one of the desert dwellers might come over to at least share some palavar. He wasn't sure it would make it though, not with the sea winds whipping about, but he much preferred chancing a lost voice than a lost body if he attempted a swim.

ÖDE

A voice answered him as if he'd asked her directly and not the breeze. Surprised, red eyes shifted amid his dark face, finding the very tiger mare he was looking for as she stepped out of a complaining structure of wood. What he thought quizzically, his 'brow lifting in interest at the contraption she utilized. He had seen drift wood along the shore before, but it had never seemed safe or sturdy enough to hold a horse. Was this how the Throat traveled, by wood? He'd never seen any drift wood look like that though. Surely a crafter had shaped it into more of a... leaf he supposed is what he could associate it best with.

Shaking his head Öde cleared his thoughts of such unimportant banter. Although he still wondered how he hadn't seen her before (unaware his magic had stripped her of her veiling cloak of mists) - must be the travel weariness he figured.
Clearing his mind he instead plastered on a broad grin and made to walk towards her and fill the gap between them, hesitating only briefly when he caught the cross look she snarled back in return. At her own smile, which betrayed the glare prior, and cool words he couldn't help but laugh in genuine good nature.

"I'm sorry we never did get a proper introduction did we? Öde, Emissary of the Aurora Basin." He inclined his head marginally as a sign of respect. She outranked him, even if she was in a different herd, and it was her knowledge and her god that he was here for. The boy could certainly be cordial when he tried; thank the gods for Lena for that. Still, having to bow his head to anyone, however low, was like a self inflicted wound that jabbed against his pride and caused the coils of his mother's memory to rankle against his subconscious.

As he lifted his head again, his smile remained, but his eyes were heavier, darker, more strained with all of his internal shadows and wars. "If I remember right you're Maren... Diviner." He wasn't one to forget names or faces easily, but he made sure specifically to remember hers when he overheard it at the meeting. "I'd hoped to take up some of your time if you're available, to learn more about the history of your land and your god." Close enough by now Öde slowed to a halt, his body curved towards her as he stood the side, assessing her with his right eye. It was difficult not to get distracted by the appendages that fluttered around by her ears, so he retained eye contact and his grin.

"I'm trying to gather some more lore for our own record keeping. In return I'm happy to share my knowledge with you, or escort you to see our Haruspex if you prefer." The last bit was difficult to say, but he knew he couldn't very well ask for something and give nothing. Besides, even if the Throat was more physically isolated, the Basin was definitely more emotionally so, and their sentinel would not see her arrival kindly without a member at her side.

[So sorry for the wait! D:]

ÖDE

Not a queen, his thoughts agreed as she spoke, something better. He didn't speak again though, because she was the type of mare that liked to lead a conversation, or so he was learning, and he'd hate to interrupt her. He could tell he walked a knife edge with her, which he was somewhat pouty about. In all honesty he was incredibly excited to share knowledge with her, though perhaps that was because he had so little of his own. Still, he'd have thought her the same, because theirs was a rank often under-appreciated by the others. He supposed he might also have a false view of how rank exchanges ought to be. Lena met with healers often and it always went over happily; herbs were traded, information swapped, well wishes offered. Maren on the other hand, was much more guarded and specific. He hadn't quite yet determined what it was she was looking for, and he was starting to doubt he could give it to her. A story, certainly, but there was more than that.

So he kept quiet, trying to glean more about her as they whittled away time. He couldn't afford to have her even more cross with him, least of all when she was finally accepting of him and settled down for her tale. She gazed off in thought, and he followed the direction that she looked, wondering if there was something out there that he could see too. It seemed beyond him though, whatever she saw, whatever memory she plucked upon. He hadn't really thought about it until she spoke that perhaps she was not born in Helovia like she was. The names she used were like nothing he'd ever heard, and not for the first time Öde wondered what other gods existed.

He stood in silence as Maren spoke, though it took little effort on his part because her words wove his attention in easily. He felt like he could see the beings as she spoke of them, and when she finished they seemed to drift away like a morning fog, which left him blinking and hazy. It felt almost as if he'd been given something familiar, or a friend he'd never knew, but then had it pulled away. It left a sensation of cold, and he supposed that was what learning was. Ignorance was a warm bliss and with it's dissipation the grudges of life and all its lessons sat heavy and hard and icy inside you.

He turned his gaze to her. It had been there all along, but he had not been seeing her. Now he did, and at her own smile his own grew, and remained even when she clapped hers away. So she does enjoy the sharing of this work... but why hide it?
"Yes," he responded truthfully to her inquiry. "It speaks of love conquering hate. Of light finding a way amid the darkness, the way the stars and the moonlight keep the night from being empty." He tilted his head, his assessment incomplete. "Though, I think it unfair that Bastet stole Sol from Luna. It was not her place to step in the way of that love. She vilifies the moon and glories the sun, but both are necessary and neither one better or worse than the other. For her selfishness she was appropriately punished."

ÖDE

Öde didn't like the idea that gods were just mortals with inflated egos and abilities. To some degree perhaps he already knew this, but he didn't accept it. To say this story showed some of Sol's weakness, his adoration of mortal characteristics (otherwise known as flaws to him) was abhorrent. Still, she spoke well of it, and even if he didn't agree with her appreciation of the story's weaker points, he could understand her definition of its purpose, that loss is inevitable and mortals and gods alike must live with it like scars. He knew that all to well already, young or not.

"I merely think too often the darkness is vilified and the light praised, when they are two sides of the same inevitable and necessary force." He had not meant to imply anything of her, though he was amused she defended herself so carefully. He wondered what a tale from the Moon's wise one might tell - if this same story would run a different course. A hypocrite, yes, but she was a sun worshiper all the same. "Though you seem to understand that, a shame so many others don't." He found he liked the rough, guarded mare. She was smart, and she was devout, which was more than could be said of most anyone else. He supposed Ashamin had grown on him too, but he still wasn't sure what to make of the strange man that called meetings in the dark when wars raged.

"That's why my tale is about the shadows," he began, a touch of pride to his voice as he crafted his own fable for her. He had never told anyone a story before, but he was confident all the same. "There was a land where herds of horses governed by species. A place for the unicorns, and place for the pegasus, and a place for the equines. Their gods, much like those here, embodied that elements that controlled all life and found no preference in the species they had made. Impassive, they neither helped nor stopped the wars that tore apart the lands, each species driving at each other as they claimed superiority."

"Then one day, a simple stallion came to the lands. He watched the herds and the battles, and he looked on at the divisions that they made. He went through and picked up all the little forgotten pieces. But by bit he built an army of the forgotten ones, the hated one, the hybrids that belonged to neither herd and neither species. With them, he took control of each herd at least once." Öde's tale told enough of himself plainly, as his passion for war and his homeland were built into the fable that he crafted, based on those whispers his mother had told him long ago.

"This angered the other herds, and the other species. When they lost their lands they rallied with each other to get them back. They forged alliances, however brief, and together drove out the dark stallion and all his misfits. This broke the stallion's heart, for he wanted to build something great, he wanted to become a god himself, he wanted the world... but he perished." Hopefully that was not his destiny either, though his wants were similar.

"In the wake of his passing, a new land arose, for the hybrids. It would be wrong to say peace reigned, but now there was a new home for those who were lost, and for a moment the herds and the species had found a common enough enemy to unite them. As for the stallion, though he does not live among the stars, his name continued to pass on the lips of the living, and in a way, made him immortal like he wanted. His soul is said to guide the lost ones when they pass, and it's whispered his strength can be borrowed from the shadows if you've the means. He is a stallion of the people, bridging that gap between god and mortal."

Öde finished with a grin, because that was a tale he found something in. He couldn't tell if she would, because it wasn't something made to teach children or promote any single god. It was a warped sense of history that had been buried in lands beyond these borders, but it didn't make it any less important to listen to.

ÖDE

Safe from the wolves? the back of his thoughts wondered.
What if you are the wolf?

He said nothing on it, letting that conversation end with her final say (she seemed like a mare that appreciated as much) while his own story unfolded. He could tell nearly as soon as his tale had ended that she took the story in a much different way than he. Where he found glory and beauty and strength, she found something to scrutinize, that much he could tell by the way her eyes changed. They had never been particularly inviting; for a mare of the Sun she was not the warmest he had ever met, but he did not fault her for being guarded. He didn't like that she was, but he did not hold it against her. Distantly he wondered if he was a mare if he might not be more on guard too.

Still, her first question took him by surprise. It was an honest question, but it seemed accusatory and that tone threw him off. After he gathered himself he said this, "do you not?" A pause as that thought crossed his mind, he continued. "Can you say you've no envy of the gods and their abilities the more you work with them?" They were not without their negative aspects to be sure, but the positives far outweighed those in Öde's mind.

"I suppose there are worse ways, but for someone who wanted to be a god, to never be forgotten, legacy is a temporary thing. Our great kinds and our noble heroes might weave their way into stories at times, into memories and bloodlines, but with the turning of time all of those change as new names come into play." The stallion never wanted to be forgotten, and Öde still remembered him, but he was only the second generation. How long would the DemonKing's name survive the bloodlines? Even now it was only his kin that whispered it, everyone else had long forgotten, or died too.

"Gods however, gods we remember forever, because they are forever. Theirs are the best tales, the true kings, the fathers of us all - how could we lose them?"