"Why did you not?"

Shit!

I jumped at the sudden ringing of a voice through the cave and even though I tried to quickly appear cool, calm, and collected I failed miserably. I could tell because the feathers on my wings had puffed up and left me looking like a fat blue jay. My ears tilted back and I donned an annoyed expression, then, which morphed into a glower aimed at the mare for sneaking up on me and myself for spooking like a fool. What was it with mares in this place and sneaking up on everyone? Every place I've been some mare has sneaked up. It must be some kind of past time for them.

I studied her, perhaps a little too thoroughly, but I did anyway. She was plain like every other mare I've met here so far. The only difference between her and the others is that the tips of her mane are red. like they've been dipped in blood. It makes me wonder if, in fact, it was blood. Was she a killer? I swiftly began to devise a scenario in my head. She used that horn to slit throats. She used that dragon with her, yes I'd noticed him, to carve up her prey with his talloned hands. Then she would dip her mane and tail in the bloody mess and dye her tresses.

"My wings were tired." I suddenly answered her, shaking the image from my head. My ggaze shifted over to the dragon and I suddenly felt very vulnerable backed into a corner in the cave. Anxiety was never a good thing not only for my well being but for appearances. When I get nervous my feathers fluff up. I'm pretty sure I look pregnant now.

The longer I stared at the mare the less threatening she seemed to be, especially when she yawned and leaned against the wall of the cave. Oh, forgive me madame, I did not mean to bore you with my silence. I mulled over the question she asked, where I had flown from. Would she know of Janat? Would she know of the atrocities of the elders and the stupidity of my family? No, she couldn't, could she? She, like the other mares I've met, had no wings. The ones that did have wings only had one set. Were they all unfavorable to the gods? Perhaps I've come to the right land if so many were disfavored.

"Janat." I finally answer her. "The land of angels." I snorted and rolled my eyes at the second half. There were no angels in that land. Only those that blindly followed the leadership of elders who had their heads shoved up their asses. It's safe to say that I don't miss home. I don't even miss my parents or my brother.

"Are you from here?" I ask, but my attention is no longer on the pale, bloody mare but the silver dragon that came with her.

I snorted when the pale mare suggested that Janat was not as heavenly as the name made it sound. "That's putting it mildly." I grumble more to myself than in response to the mare. I can't help but think about the years I had spent in Janat. The disappointed, disgusted looks on my parents' face when they look at me, the contempt the elders look at me with, the disappointment in my brother's face when he sees me. Then I think of Muriel and the kind way she had always looked at me and I feel an uncomfortable ache in my chest. She was the only one that had ever seen me as an individual and I pushed her away. I never felt as if I deserved anything other than contempt.

I blink and shake my head to clear my mind of the assault of the memories and images my mind presented me with. What I would give to forget the way they looked at me and the way they treated me, yet I don't go out of my way to forget. I suppose it's because subconsciously I want to remember where I came from. I heaved a heavy sigh and noticed belatedly that my wings were no longer puffed up, making me resemble a fat blue bird.

My head raises and I take notice of the pale mare once more when she says she is not from this land. "Where do you come from?" I ask, desperate to hear about some land other than Janat.

ooc:// if Phi wants to use her magic on him she's more than welcome to