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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    Paralyze the Minds and Contest the Thoughts [Open for anybody]
    #1
    Kosh

    What is the world really like outside of the Valley?

    She had ventured out of the valley only once before but never this far, and at the time her companion Vai nearly got herself killed.  They did not suspect the tribes outside of their own homeland to be hostile towards them as they were.  Terrible things happened, they were detained for days (weeks? it was hard to remember when the nightmares still persisted) and when it was over, Kosh went home with Vai practically thrown over her shoulders.

     Kosh could not help but wonder if leaving home was a good idea or a bad one, especially since she could not take with her the two things she cherished the most. She missed her best friend and pet cat, but the Valley would not let her take them with her this time.  Last time it had been a disaster and Beqanna, she assumed, would probably be unkind to her companions like the Black Plains had been.   

    After that, they stayed in the valley for a long time before the itch to try again kept Kosh awake at night.  She still felt regret for ever inviting Vai out into the wilderness but she could not blame herself for the mistake - they were both ignorant just as the Black Plains tribes had been.  At the end of the day, horses were horses, and she supposed that-that reason alone was why the Plains decided to let them go free.  But the price they had to pay had been great, and Vai's life (as well as Kosh's) would be changed permanently.  Vai's for the worst and Kosh's...for the better.

    She knew nothing of where she was going but she did not care for her own well being, just others. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if anything terrible happened to Vai again - the poor girl already had scars to live with for the rest of her life.  That, and now a child she never wanted to care for.  The valley horses wanted to keep Vai safe, Ante safe, but because Kosh's desire to learn more about the outside world was stronger in her than any other horse in the herd.  The valley horses then decided together to let Kosh learn everything they did not know - she would be allowed to leave so long as she would return with information about the world they hid from.  

    Part of her wasn't sure she would ever return now because she wasn't sure she even knew the way home anymore.  Never a matter of importance for her, not anymore, she had almost forgotten what valley-life was like after a wild year-long pursuit of knowledge.  Her ambition had driven her far from her childhood home to here, Beqanna, a place that she could not remember happening upon.  She could not identify the changes she felt upon entering the wild woods that bordered the field but she could feel it from within.  Once the open field came into view - and the several horses it was feeding (housing?) she felt a twinge of anxiety.  She would not let the trauma of the past stop her now, she knew this was not the Black Plains and she knew that she had been through rougher areas and still managed to escape unscathed.

    Perhaps Beqanna had been a destiny all along?  Perhaps she was meant to be free.  The blue roan stood alone by the trees to study the grazing groups and the chatting circles, none of which appeared to be aware of her standing in the shadows.  

    This is the world,  Kosh said to herself, her pale gray eyes admiring all the differences between her and the others - horses were horses - but here they came from all different walks of life.  She suddenly found herself to be very shy in the company of strangers but her feet drove her forward towards an unsuspecting horse, one that stood alone as well. The outsiders back home did not speak her language but how would she ever know unless she found out for herself.  

    "Hello.  I am Kosh."  She'd start off small and see where it takes her.



    ooc:  This is a bad post, I promise it gets better (it has been a year or more since I've written)

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    #2
    Mother tell your children not to do the things I have done


    The sun bore down mercilessly on the field, autumn giving no relief to the residents of Beqanna. Not even those who deserved it.

    Archaelis made his way into the field, legs pulling him toward the center of the land where water was promised. It is here that the flaxen stallion stopped, dipping his bone colored muzzle into the cool water of the stream. He allowed the liquid to slid down the willing passage of his dry throat, the pins and needles slowly fading from his body.

    His head rose, brown hues straying from the ground to the field, his smile widening at the sight. 

    "Hello. I am Kosh."

    The rust colored stag nearly burst through the roof. A not so manly scream erupting from his chest.

    "Well, Kosh.. you should learn not to sneak up on people like that."

    He assessed the child before him now, raising a questioning brow, he had been scared... by a child.

    "I could have killed you yah know. Merciless killing machines roam around here. Don't wanna go scaring them now do yah?"

    By no means could the stallion have hurt her. He couldn't hurt a fly, even if he REALLY wanted to. It simply wasn't in his nature. He waited for his words to sink in before a laugh came, followed by a bright smile.
    "Im kidding im kidding. I am Archaelis by the way, but my friends call me Archie."
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    #3
    She had been too eager, too curious about him - her approach had been bad both literally and figuratively.

    "Oh-", it was a long, less than excited exhale when she realized she startled him.  The blue roan was crestfallen at once, certain that she'd been the weirdo to freak a stranger out.

    They seem nice.  We should go introduce ourselves!  

    Memories that echoed in Kosh's mind felt like words travelling down long marble halls, her voice two years younger and so was Vai's.  They thought they had been so wise as yearlings when in truth they had been stupid, stupid girls.  The tribes neighboring their borders were far from being kind and who were they - these silly, ignorant, sheltered fillies - to think that everyone on the outside would accept them wherever they went?  Her mouth went dry remembering the last time she had seen a - what did Archaelis call them? - a 'Killing Machine'?  It took a minute to try and figure out what he meant - but when it clicked it clicked and her gray eyes lit up like silver beneath a messy mop of feathery black hair.


    "Oh-oh, you mean a Plainsmen. Honestly, I was worried you were one - but you speak my language."  Kosh tried to remain hopeful as she stepped closer to him.  All the horses she had ever seen was the Crone, her grandmothers, the mothers, and the children - all the men stayed on the outside and never came into the Valley.  The first time she had ever seen one was with Vai and even then she had been more lucky than her companion to never know how cruel they could be.  But she could either be afraid of the rest of the world and never understand why or she could find her way into it somehow unscathed - and if the world must hurt her then hurt her, just don't kill her.  Archaelis did not seem to be violent in anyway and so, Kosh stepped closer again. 

    "I like Archaelis better."  She said forwardly, her dark black face stared up at him as if she were trying to spy a bird in the trees above his ears.  "You are very tall.  I've never seen someone so big before."  Her tail swished curiously, the field and all of it's tenants forgotten as the short blue horse inspected him.  "Where do you come from?  I am from everywhere."  He didn't smell like Here, not that she knew what Here even meant.  Kosh wasn't even from Here, but her smell was a collection of musks and flowers from the hollows she haunted and the meadows she wallowed in before finding Beqanna. 

    Or rather, Beqanna finding her.
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