"Not that you'd care to hear about it." She shot back, flattening her ears against her skull and standing her ground, black eyes flashing hatefully at the stallion. "And not that I'd care to stick around long enough to tell you about it." She turned herself away from him, heading at an angle to get away from him. She held an air of disdain and anger about her, and her eyes glittered with hate as she glared at him from the corner of one black orb. She swished her tail and continued prancing away gracefully, as if he did not exist. To her, he might as well be part of the scenery. Wondering if he'd try to make an advance or come after her, she picked up her pace into a trot, lifting her legs high and setting them quietly back onto the cold earth. If she'd been a wolf, she would have snarled at him; a warning to keep his distance. Anger and humiliation roiled together inside the gut of the pinto beauty, anger at stallions in general and humiliation over the fact she'd not been able to defend herself, not been able to stop the incident from happening. Luckily she'd gotten away very quickly-- she would not birth a foal. Her ears stayed pinned no matter the fact she was ignoring Abyss; she could not force herself to forget the recent happenings of the day.

Oops! Switched my accounts! xD Sorry!

((As Elizabeth said above, you need to meet minimum word counts. I cannot even craft a response to a post that isn't even 60 words. My apologies.))

I fixed it, hopefully, and I apologize for such short replies; I have had a major drop in muse lately, and when I do have bursts of muse, it's for Nefertari, not Cleo. D:

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" A fight it would be then. The stallion smiled broadly as the mare glared at him hatefully and turned from him. He would not regret approaching this mare, oh no, she promised a great deal of fun, fun that he could not so easily turn his nose up at. He trotted after her, keeping his distance should she decide to lash out with those hooves of hers. She was in a temper, he could tell. "Not very polite of you to be taking your anger out on an innocent stallion, like myself," the stallion chortled, "But then, I've never known mares to be the most rational of beings. Particularly not the ones with great horns protruding from their heads. Does that weigh you down, my lady? Bet it gives you a right headache." His laugh is sinister and deep, but he is thoroughly enjoying himself. "Don't be running off so fast, lovely, the fun's just getting started!" His smile deepened. The black stag could hardly wait.

She turned and looked at him disdainfully. "Oh please. You? Innocent? Hardly." She snorted and braced herself, horn gleaming like a sharpened dagger. "We're quite rational, thank you. And no. It's much lighter than it appears." She tossed her head, shifting her mane so that it rested on the left side of her neck, and spoke again, a quiet whisper full of menace. "I think I'll run where I choose, stallion. You have no claim to me." A shudder ran through her bodice, and she knew he'd probably suspect that it was fear or wariness-- he was wrong. She wanted him to be aggressive, wanted him to give her a reason to tear flesh from bone and spit it back in his face.

Obsidian eyes flashed with hatred and unmistakable intent. If the stallion would not leave her be, then she would be more than happy to attack him. Flay him. There was nothing like fighting; to her, it was a drug. "If you're going to try and take what you're after by force... Try me." She whispered, giving him a nasty smile. "The last idiot was a little bigger than you... But I still got away. What's more, he's wounded." Her smile deepened, and her voice drifted to a soft, soft sound that barely carried to him, and was full of evil intent. "And I can't wait to see how much of your flesh I can rip off."

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" "You wound me, my lady!" the stallion exclaimed, smirking, "Barely have we met and already you cast aspirations on my character and it is you who acts as the insulted one. I should be fuming and huffing at you for your shortsighted assumptions!" The stallion laughed again, eyeing her boldly, for she was a lovely mare. Too bad her temper was on edge and she was ready to light into him so quick. He stepped closer to her, daring her to attack, to use that horn as it was meant to be used. Oh he had great respect for the horned ones, great respect indeed, for they had a weapon he could never hope to use. They were just another form of equine with an advantage to their name. "Looking for a fight are we? Too bad, we could have had such a good time. Pretty girl like you, excellent lover like myself, not bad to look at either." He was goading her, daring her to attack him, daring her to make the first move. She was smaller than he, and her claim seemed hardly farfetched. She was ferocity in a small package. "Passionate," he observed, his voice low and silky, "If you were not so foul mouthed, I might have tried seducing you. And it would have been much more enjoyable than this act of war. But you seek a foe, do you not, my love? Ah well...come at me then!"

She relaxed completely, her obsidian eyes going blank. She refused to be goaded by this arrogant stallion. "My lord." She spoke through her teeth, a hard, sarcastic tone. "I doubt I would enjoy myself in your company, especially not after what happened earlier today." And then she was turning from him and walking away, refusing him, and refusing the fight she so desperately desired. Calling over her shoulder, she said, "If I were desperate for a fight, then you would have one, raven, but as it is...." She looked back at him, still blank-faced. "I am not that desperate, and I've grown tired of you." And then she was floating away, her hooves carrying her off over the snow. Again she called back to him, "And had you seduced me, it would have been a one-night stand... Nothing more. I daresay you would abandon me the moment after you'd gotten what you desired." And then she paused and looked back, stamping a hoof into the snow. "But, you see, I'm not interested in love of any kind; physical or emotional. Had you found me yesterday, perhaps I would have gone along with your game, and eventually you would have had me."

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" "So you wander away from me! Searching for the next stag to try his hand at winning you. Love, again you judge so quick. I am not most stallions. True, I do desire a pretty piece like yourself on occasion, but I do not take. To take is to ruin a mare forever, to persuade, to convince, is an art form." The stallion smirked at her, his black eyes twinkling. Bluntness, admittance to his true nature amused him. The mare amused him. No longer did she threaten him with her sharpened horn at the ready, now she walked away! Oh, but she was conflicted, she was. So sought to leave and yet turned back. "To be thwarted by some other stallion, well that's a bitter pill to swallow. Am I not more handsome than the other? More amusing, and witty. Look, I engage you in conversation, I attempt to sate your desire to rend flesh from bone, I offer myself to you on a platter and you turn me down. Mare, were I you I would not be so cold!" He chuckled again, enjoying this new game he played. His satire of courtship amused him, but perhaps she would stay a bit longer. She brought him entertainment, and entertainment was what he sought more than anything else. It was a need for entertainment that he found mares and bred them, it was a need for entertainment that he bloodied his hooves. "A loveless vixen! Ah, but give me a chance, you'll find me gifted with a gilded tongue. I can turn a phrase, sooth a mare's vanities and her hesitations. Come my darling, don't turn from me so quick. I won't bite...without permission."

She chuckled darkly. "Ah a stallion with rhymes." Her eyes held sorrow in them for a moment. "Once upon a time I would have fallen for a stag like you." Obsidian lanterns turned cold and hard. "No doubt you would have broken it." She trotted back toward him, and stopped a few lengths away. "Very well, I will stay-- if only because you bring out my anger... And amuse me at the same time." She gave him a small, cold smile. "Not many can do both, and the ones who can't..." She made a sharp jerking motion in the air, her horn slashing through the fog that had begun to settle around them.

She looked him over and said softly, "Other stallions may try and woo me, stallion, but they will not succeed. Just as you will not. Never again shall I bed a stallion-- until one wins my heart." With that said, she sat herself down so as to be immovable. If he tried to get her up, she could easily jab him with her horn or strike out at him; and she would enjoy it. "Perhaps you like pain?" She murmured. "And perhaps that is why you offer your flesh to me. You'll find I don't tear flesh just to tear it-- the taste of blood has become something I enjoy. Must have something to do with my upbringing." Here she flashed a cruel little smile at him, and waited for his reply.

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" "My life rests in the hands of my ability to amuse you then, my lovely?" The stallion was amused, his tone clearly showing it. "Run me through if I cease to bring you entertainment, then. Keeping you amused will be my first priority. I can get very creative." He eyed her again. She was beautiful, it was a shame that she would allow none to love her. It was a shame she could not be convinced as well. Different to the stag that he would stay around with a mare he could not convince, but if she decided to attack him in the end, at least his bloodlust would be sated. Or he would be dead. He could not deny that this mare could probably offer some resistance. "Is it possible to win your heart, mare? Nay, I will no try. I do not chase a lost cause. But what of foals? It could take years for a stallion to get into your heart, considering the prickly greeting you gave me! Do you never want a young one tagging at your heels?" Foals had a way of softening a mare. He doubted it would work on this one. He eyed her sitting there and chuckled. He could hardly stop himself, it was amusing to see a mare sitting on her rear like she was. "Pain? I know much of pain, but do not be surprised when I say that the physical pain does not bother me anymore. Emotional pain cuts, which is why I keep my emotions locked up tight. You say you will never bed a stallion until one wins your heart. I cannot understand that. I cannot love, nor do I intend to and yet I do not deprive myself of carnal pleasures. Perhaps this is why you are so prickly." His tone was teasing and he smirked at her.

She laughed quietly. "Foals? At one time I would have wanted a few, yes, but certainly not with a stallion I felt nothing for. With a stallion that would not stick around to know whether or not he'd impregnated me." She eyed him suspiciously, pointedly, as if to say, 'Like you.' "Love, however..." She looked away from him, and then said softly, "I cannot afford to love." She looked back at him with hard eyes. "And the last stallion I had any trust for tried to rape me. That is why I've been in a bad mood since we met." She got up and shook herself, stretching and then looking at the ground as if it were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. "Of course I want a foal." She said softly. "What mare doesn't? But once upon a time I had one, and a mate as well. Before I came here. But they both betrayed me." Her voice turned cold. "Guess which one you remind me of, stallion. The cheater, or the deserter?" She bared her teeth at him for a moment before calming herself and looking down.

"I think I'll go now." She whispered, turning and beginning to walk away as if the conversation had aged her. "If you seek company like that... Go find someone else. Leave me to my misery, and go sire someone else's foal who won't care if you stick around or not." Her tone was harsh and cold, but she couldn't quite hide the edge of pain she felt cutting at her like a knife. "There are plenty of mares out there, stallion... Go after one of them instead." She lifted her head up high, and kept her face from view of the stallion. She refused to let him see the tears in her eyes. He reminded her so much of her old mate... Too much. Anger flashed in those black eyes, anger that the stallion could bring those memories back unbidden. Of course she wanted a foal! She missed her own, but he'd chosen to go with his rat of a father. In her mind, he'd betrayed her. He'd declared that day just how much he cared about her. She flattened her ears and bared her teeth, lashing out with hooves at a nearby tree. She wanted to scream at the agony of her memories, wanted to-- and there was her answer. A deep pool of water lay to the left. She froze, shaking, looking at it. She could plunge in and freeze to death, or drown... No more memories. No more attempts at rape. No more stallions trying to seduce her. Nothing but blackness... No more her.

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" "Both?" the stallion tried. She was angry, oh yes, quite angry, "You are strong. A babe would be hard to raise alone, but how can you say a stallion that does not love you will leave you alone to raise a child. In my experience, even stallions that do not love the mare that bore the child love the child enough to help raise it." He sighed. He had illegitimate children somewhere, far from Helovia. It pained him to know that he would never know them. "I will not stop you." He watched her walk away from him, watched her scream in agony and lash out. Her foal, she missed it whatever it was. He kept his distance, watched her face the pool. He could not see her thoughts, could not realize what she was doing. "Forgive." His voice carried on the wind loudly, deep and rumbling. He had barely forgiven, had receded into the shell of himself, but the darkness that haunted the mare...it was more blunt and on the surface, more painful. He could see it as it hung in the air. Someday he would forgive too.

"I cannot." She whispered, taking a trembling step toward the pool. "Because I hurt... I am in agony... The wounds are still fresh." Another. And another. Then she was there, rearing up and slamming down to break the ice. Her black eyes brimmed with tears. "No more..." She whispered. "No more." She stepped into the water slowly, blinking the tears back from her eyes.

Gasping at the cold, she continued to wade in until she was up to the underside of her belly. The stallion couldn't stop her now... Wouldn't. Why would he care? Of course he wouldn't. She was just another toy to him... He wouldn't care if she did this. And she would. She had to escape. She couldn't go on this way... Couldn't keep this up. Needed love, though she denied that she wanted it, refused to admit she needed it, still hung up over her old family.

But this stallion could not, would not, provide her with true love. She was too far gone for that, too damaged. She knew that even if she did carry his foal, there would be no point to even letting him near it. Too complicated, to grow up in a family where the parents barely had tolerance for each other. She would know. She waded in a little farther, knowing soon hypothermia would set in, and she would freeze to death. Her legs were already numbing, her vision flickering, her lungs slowing in the intake of breaths. Peace. She would finally have peace.

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" So suicide was on the mare's brain. The stallion shook his head. No, no, that would never do. If he did not get to give up, nor did she. The stallion paced forward, stopping on the edge of the waters. "Do not be foolish," he barked out, his tone furious, "You cry at me, your pity ringing in the air. 'My mate left me, my son as well, betrayed and deserted, I am so lost, I cannot love.' And yet you do not try to love. You will chase away every stallion. I admit, I have no great love of the romance that others speak of. Your past is terrible, but you do not know what it is like to watch thousands of loyal followers be cut down before you. No, I am no stranger to agony and yet you do not see me in the water before you. Do not be so foolish." The stallion frowned, unsure as to why he cared. His anger was palatable though, hanging in the air as the mare stepped deeper into the water. Frustrated, he huffed, his breath hanging in the air as he spoke or even opened his maw. "Kill yourself then. Freeze and drown in this water. Find your sought after peace. Pitiful. You are selfish. There are stallions in this land who will help you. I would have helped you. I am no kindness, I would not love you. I don't believe I can love anyone." The stallion watched her passively. He would not wade into the water himself. His persuasion was probably terribly unpersuasive, but he would not grovel before her. "When I met you I thought you had fighting spirit. It seems I have been proven wrong."

His last words made her head snap around. She bared her teeth and flattened her ears, rearing up and plunging out of the water. Glaring at him, she lowered her head. "No one will help me. I'm pretty sure your idea of 'help' is a one-night stand to knock me up." She stamped a hoof angrily. "Try to love? Try? Is that what you ask of me? Bring me a stallion who could return my passion!" Her black eyes blazed with fury; the mare was incensed with rage at the stallion. "Bring me a stallion who could stand before me and not loose courage; a stallion who will remain his own person but also not be so very independent from me! Someone, anyone who can love me as an equal, not as a subordinate. I will bow to no one's wishes. Find me a stallion like that, raven, and I will try." Panting with fury and exhaustion and cold, she stood shaking in the cold wind, glaring at him.

Abyss "I must confess that I feel like a monster" As she plunged from the water, the stallion smirked, his mission accomplished. The mare was bitter, angry, and he knew that he would get no further with her. She would not sate his desire to have her, nor would she attack him so readily. He watched her without emotion save for the smug look on his maw. Her reactions to his taunts had been expected. "Then I suppose you had better learn to help yourself instead of begging for pity. If no one will help you, forge your own help or be bitter and miserable. You are not helpless, nor are you dependent on others for their help. So what if your mate left you? So what if your son abandoned you? My mate is dead. Torn to pieces and scattered for the crows to eat. My children? I had six, all slain before my eyes. A herd numbering hundreds now rotted corpses scatter across the plains, a feast for the vultures. You were abandoned and hurt...those that killed my herd intended on destroying me, yet I do not beg your pity." His tone was harsh, cold, unforgiving. He gazed at her evenly, her next rampage stereotypical. Mares desired equality yet they act inferior. Her temper tantrum had been one that he had watched a hundred other mares throw. He scoffed when she finished. "You did not give me a chance to treat you as an equal, you lashed out at me from the beginning. Perhaps if you had greeted me rather than threatened me when we first met you would have uncovered a kind stallion. If you treat all stags like I, you will be lonely for life. And that alone is your fault."