03-27-2015, 06:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-10-2015, 11:18 AM by Romek.)
[OOC Update 10th April.... Romek and Orphax are currently waiting for another Deserts member to come and greet them  ]
How could he go and do something as selfish as dying? Didn't he know that was bad for people? Did he not realise that it would cause a lot of people a lot of anguish? He was just as bad as Romek's mother, the snivelling, grovelling wreck. Did he go out begging and crying too? (Not that the stallion had witnessed her death, but that's how he had always imagined it). It brought him back to his younger days of long-legged prancing across dunes... Oh, he was an angry little thing back then, but he has never felt this brand of all consuming rage before. He'd hate to be a cliche, but... it wasn't fair. Hasn't he seen enough suffering? Has he not felt enough, done enough? Why Vanquish, of all the horses?
He wasn't really angry at the night-walker. He was angry at the injustice of it all.
He was a good man. He didn't damage others for no reason. He didn't really do anything wrong. He had the kind of attitude that Romek wanted (the one he narrowly missed inheriting from his mother). He was upstanding, moral, he was a knight. His brother. Kin.
He could think of at least seven other horses off the top of his head who deserved to die more than him. Romek himself may be one of those. Why not? He had never really done anything, amounted to much. Sure, he'd been a General but it had never really been off his own sweat and hard work. They may like to pretend that it was, but everyone knew it was because his parents had been royalty. He'd won a 'contest' but there had only been two 'competitors'.
But he was back now. Sort of. In the stead of Vanquish, Romek would stand. Not that he could ever fit into the massive shadow the King had cast (literally and metaphorically) but it's the least he could do. Take care of the Deserts. Vanquish had said. And Romek would sooner cut off his own legs and live his life as a tortoise than ignore his final wishes.
A better man than he would take that anger and convert it into hope for the future or some such shit, but he was a little bitter worm and it's far more likely he would take his anger out on people who he found really, really annoying (which is the vast majority of Beqanna).
It's just who he is.
Of course, that would mean moving closer into the heart of the Deserts rather than lingering on the outskirts as he preferred. He found he wanted to kick horses less there, something to do with not being able to hear their stupid voices all the way out there. But it was for Vanquish. He can't promise to be nice, but he doesn't think his king would have expected that from him. Disappointment, shame - the standard fare... That was Romek. Not love and free hugs.
Fluttering through the sands,
Orphax catches a stallion by her gaze,
Angered yet maybe troubled he stands,
Orphax has but one question to raise.
Orphax galloped reluctantly over to the perturbed looking stallion as to not seem to eager to meet with him. Maybe if she could make just one friend in this new land maybe she can get somewhere.
"I am Orphax the young,
I must ask what troubles you much,
Perhaps with the words of my tongue,
Orphax can help as such."
Orphax's voice spoke so mildly that perhaps the stallion did not hear her speak. After all she was a stranger in strange lands with strange people connected to strange voices. Perhaps this new mare could fit in somewhere
at least. She added another phrase as to make sure she had his attention.
"Famous I may not be,
At least I cam help a stranger,
For that I am best you see,
Do not see me as your danger,
Pray tell me what is your problem
The Answer of which I may help you seek"
Orphax had hoped that the stallion would not think of her as too weird. After all, many of the other folk had found her way of talking in poetic passages and riddles confusing and if not laughable but it was a literary art form highly regarded by the herd that her parents belonged to.
He's too busy stewing to notice the grey mare approach him.
His first reaction to the interruption is irritation, but that quickly turns to amusement as she bursts out into rhyming verse. Although perhaps 'burst into' is strong phrasing, as her voice is as soft as still water. Not unpleasant as such, but if they had been anywhere other than the Deserts, she would've been inaudible. The Deserts, bone-dry and mostly lifeless, is only really loud towards its epicenter, not here in the outer lands. Luckily for her.
"Do you always talk like that?" he says in his usual grouchy manner, brow furrowing into a frown. "Or is it a special thing, just for me?"
He's not charming, not by any stretch of the imagination.
"Why do you talk like that, anyway?" he asks, genuinely curious this time rather than mocking. The fact it conveniently sidesteps her actual probing is just a plus. Excuse him if he doesn't want to discuss the depths of his emotions with someone else, even if he does feel so strongly the emotions are almost tangible in the dry, hot air.
Ears raised, the words uttered from the stallion's lips sounded foul at best as if to brush Orphax away like dirt. She screwed her young, unblemished face and turned. He has quite a tongue that one! Thought Orphax. Her face seemed to mimic her internal first thoughts of this unwelcoming horse. Although, next time he spoke he swapped his tone for one of questioning but not abrasiveness.
"Perhaps you would like to know,
That the tongue of my people is so,
We used to be weavers of words,
Poets and masters of song among the herds/"
"When danger came like thunder,
Rival herds cast us asunder,
I was torn from my family so sweet,
Thrust into the wild and off my feet."
"So you see stallion, I have nothing left. All I want is someone to show me a new home, a new life. Please excuse my poetic speech. It's a habit where I'm from." Orphax drew back and turned from the stallion. A few thoughts rolled through her mind. Perhaps trying to make a new life isn't what I'm meant to do. Maybe I should find the rest of my herd... Orphax turned her hoof depressively back toward the horizon.
"If I'm not needed
I can leave now if you want
If that is your wish"
Romek wouldn't be surprised if Orphax disliked him. He's hardly the most likable horse in the Deserts, as far as the Deserts go. Not that he would know the the Deserts are like anymore, it has been so long since he has seen anyone, aside from this mare. She doesn't smell like they do, she smells of distant outside places. Fresh grass, moisture, and so on, so he concludes that the Deserts hasn't turned into the poets corner in the time he hasn't been around.
Her story is a suitably sad one, and Romek nods at the appropriate moments. He's not in a sympathetic mood.
"So when you speak, do you have to think about your rhymes or do they just come out, like diarrhea?" He realises he is still being quite obnoxious - once again. "Sorry. It's quite impressive, really. I don't think I'd have the patience for it, though."
Romek has a bit of a soft spot for outcasts and underdogs.
This mare fits the bill.
It helps that she is not arrogant.
"It's alright. The Deserts is generally quite a welcoming place. It's only misfortune that you ended up meeting me. No doubt someone will be along shortly who can give you more of an appropriate introduction."
She probably has other important duties to attend to, but old habits die hard. Pevensie has been used to wandering around aimlessly for so long, that to break that habit would be as difficult as swearing off oxygen. Crown or not. Her wanderings today bring her away from the central oasis, out into the Desert in the general direction of the Falls'. She could fly. The sun is up in the air, she could magic herself a pair of sunlight wings and make the journey much quicker, but again - she's always just walked. All these things might have to change now.
Luckily though, as she is walking today, she spots some strange horses. Not strange as in the way they look, that would just be rude, but strange in that she had no memory of their existence here in the Deserts. That doesn't shock her, in the three years she's lived here, she hadn't actually met that many of the inhabitants. Something that would have to be quickly rectified or her reign would be short-lived. She makes her way over to them both, her feet tripping in the heavy sand. Will she ever be used to the ground moving away from underneath her feet? Probably not.
The buckskin mare approaches with a broad, welcoming smile. "My name is Pevensie, inhabitant of the Deserts. Is there anything I can help you with?" she chimes in as the mare and stallion stop talking (though the manner of their conversation she does not know). The stallion has a rather grumpy appearance about him, the mare a little upset. Perhaps they are married, she muses. That would fit the bill.
Gaza has been wandering around a lot lately, going through that ‘who am I?’ phase that most young adults seem to go through these days. Normally he would have asked his father… but that wasn’t possible anymore. Gaza still keenly felt his absence, almost as keenly as he felt the absence of Kitra and Akbar. That was the thing about triplets (and twins, he imagines); they’re a part of you, no matter the distance between the three of them. Their bond developed in the womb, even if it was only because they were forced to be together.
Now the former Prince feels rather lost without everyone. Sure, he has Yael (and he loves her dearly, but she had so much on her plate and he could see the pain in her eyes and didn’t want to add to it), but she was always a Queen first and a mother second. For which he never faulted her! It was simply the way of her world. He lost a father. She seemed to lose part of her soul, and he does not know how to comfort that sort of loss. Fortunately for him, he catches a familiar scent on the hot wind and a rare smile appears on the stallion’s face. Pevensie!
She had been good at the Camel Chasing. He wonders if she’ll ever do it again, now that she’s Queen?
The well-built stallion black stallion turns to follow the smell and shortly spots the small mare along with a group of unknown others. One of them might recognize him as a child of Vanquish (he is slightly smaller than the hulking giant, tempered by Yael’s dainty blood, and lacking the impressive wings - but he is black as night and has Yael’s Akhal sheen), the other would have no idea. Perhaps more eager for company than he realized, he breaks into a trot when he sees them, throwing up great puffs of sand in his wake. He slows when he draws close enough, throwing out a pleasant, “Hey Pevensie!” as if they were good friends and not the Queen. If it offends, she must forgive him - he’s never been formal around royalty. “Hi… I’m Gaza. What are you guys doing?”
He’s still kind of a kid at heart.
We do what we must,
Because we can.
The little gathering on the edges of the Desert is a cacophony. She can hear it in her mind long before she ever decides to join them, Romek's cranky voice, the poetry of Orphax, Pevensie's light and lilting tones, and the childish voice of Gaza. She knows them all, although none but Gaza would know her. They wear their identities on their sleeves, and her years of practice with magic allow her to pick them out easily.
She smiles to herself, whistles to Gumby, and almost giggles when he comes frolicking across the dunes, kicking up sand as he goes, tongue lolling incongruously out of his human mouth. "Let's go, boy. We've got new friends to meet." she says, her voice every inch what you'd expect of a human talking to a pet dog. She sets off at a trot, Gumby following loosely at her heels, often frolicking ahead, rolling around in the sand, or otherwise being a typical goofy dog. Dog-sphinx. Bronze dog-sphinx construct. It's complicated.
They reach the little group quickly, moving across the sand with easy purpose. Gumby barks an excited hello, wagging his lion's tail, and Camrynn shushes him, It's not polite to bark at guests, after all. He whines a bit, sitting down in the sand, and eventually flops over, rolling around in the sand like a complete goofball. "Don't mind Gumby's barking, he's just trying to be friendly." As though on cue, Gumby sits up, at attention, his tail wagging against the sand, shifting a small pile of sand back and forth as the tail goes like a windshield wiper. His tongue lolls out of his mouth, and he generally looks infinitely ridiculous.
"You've got quite the group here." she smiles at them. "I'm Camrynn. It's nice to meet you all."
C A M R Y N N
Why? Because I can
Image copyright MariannaInsomnia
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