09-13-2017, 07:36 PM
 i'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take It had seemed only natural to slip into patrols. The lay of the land in Loess is still far from familiar, but Ivar can say with certainty that he does know the border. There is never much movement in either direction; his own venture to the common lands seems to be the most recent. He has come to know some of the residents though; at least from a distance. Merida he has been avoiding on purpose; the piebald stallion is not quite sure he’s ready for another run in from the fiery mare. There’s a pair of younger horses, one that smells of the sea, and the grey stallion. Heda he sees the most often, of course, and then Zhenga while she is visiting. The horses he senses now are unfamiliar. There are four of them; not enough for an invasion but still far too many horses for a diplomatic mission. As he moves closer (his long legs eating away easily at the ground), he learns more. Three mares and a single stallion, and Heda is already there to meet them. At that he moves a bit faster. The logical part of his mind knows that she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but logic does not entirely trump his dual set of instincts. He has kept the news of Taiga from Heda. It wasn’t out of malice; it was selfishness. He knows she hails from the (drowned) redwood forest, but to tell her of it meant to speak of the destruction, and of his failure. That was something he was not yet ready to face, and yet it seems that fate is uninterested in Ivar’s emotional readiness. There is the smell of ash and sea on the hides of a least one of these strangers. He does not recognize them, but since he knew few of the residents of Taiga that is to be expected. The brown eyed stallion approaches the pair that are closest to Heda. He looks briefly at the other two, the mares that linger on the border, but then he focuses on the red-eyed stallion and the blue mare. Neither strike him as particularly intimidating, they are all (prey) after all, but he does not like the way that the stallion approaches Heda. It brings Ivar closer, the dark eyed stallion pressing one dark scaled shoulder to Heda’s buckskin haunch. The handsome stallion does not speak, because he is nothing more than a newcomer here in Loess. This is Heda’s arena, and Ivar would rather stand back than put his hooves where they do not belong. Adding no verbal spear to the darts that Gryffen throws, he stands as a physical show of support to the winged queen. It seems that this stranger expects the entirety of a kingdom to appear within an instant of a visitor’s arrival, and that alone is enough to make Ivar wary. Who is this stranger that he thinks himself so important? The mention of Taiga causes an imperceptible wince; perhaps it would have been best if he'd patrolled in the opposite direction today. |