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Post by Cougar on Nov 19, 2009 15:30:54 GMT
The wolves stepped aside with fear of being pulverized under the stallions beating hooves. Still, they did not quit the chase, but merely loosened their formation and their spirits lowered a bit. In mid-chase the lilac scenery of the moonlit sand saw itself replaced by the scrolling, dark blue-green shades of vegetation of the surroundings of the oasis. Cougar, in his short years, had seen many lands. But none he knew as well as this desert of shifting sands. The existence of the cliff certainly didn't escape him, but Sombra -- did she know? "Hey girl! Hey!" He warned, but too late. Not that you could stop a horse in mid-flight anyways! The wolves, not as keen in geography as Cougar, braked and stopped at the cliff's very edge -- but the mare was nowhere to be seen. A horse was certainly too big to pull a Benji*! Down the cliff the mare went! Oh no! Hopefully she wouldn't hit a rock! The wolves then saw themselves trapped between this furious stallion and a vertiginous fall. Cougar reared and kicked at the air with his forelegs as a threat; the wolves decided to avoid him and slip between the bushes. Oh no, thought he, there'll be no more stalking us! And furious, he went after them. Once again, shaken and confused, (and this time with their leader gone missing) the wolves scattered like mice. Their second hunt attempt had ended in disaster and who knew if they had the courage to come back for a third. Cougar hoped not, but the existence of Sombra's wound would certainly worsen things. With an air of content, the stallion stopped and spun on his hooves, leaving the wolves to realize, some day, that the menacing drum of hoofsteps had gone away and thus had their fuming-mad pursuer. However, this lasted little, as when he went around and down towards the water his expression had gone urgent and worried: he heard a little voice say his name. Oh, joy! She was alive! He hurried and finally saw her white shape hidden among the palm trees. But since he heard something growling, his attention was directed towards the ground: It happened that down the little sandy slope his path crossed with the much disgraced alpha's. Cougar's face hardened into a block of bay hematite. His head lowered and his ears were pulled back. Once he snorted as a warning and his breath came like clouds of hot steam in the cool night-- then he charged and drove the wolf away. "Hopefully they won't regroup." He said under his breath. "Since you don't seem to have any past experiences with predators, you should've paid some attention to the wise words of those who do." He reprehended her. His hopes about this weren't too high, for he suspected these wise words would go to waste like all the others-- Strange character was this mare that you couldn't talk to! Nonetheless, he continued: "I see you got chomped. It's gonna hurt whenever you move the neck and it's gonna take a long while to heal." He wandered off towards the water as he talked; "I know because I got bitten in the same place." Cougar shook his mane to reveal a large scar resembling crescent moon on the withers. With those clearly visible, four slash marks on his sides he hardly had to do any explaining about his name but loved to anyways. Done with the talking, he had finally reached the water and took a drink; and thus ended the thirsty odyssey, the epic quest for water. However, Sombra was so wet that the least she could think of was a drink of water. The desert nights were very chilly -- hopefully she would be alright? (( * Benji The Hunted.))
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Sombra
Adolescent Foal
Co-Administrator
Dance 'til your dead
Posts: 70
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Post by Sombra on Nov 27, 2009 13:48:01 GMT
The fair maiden had been quite aghast once she acknowledged the disturbing relief she had felt after finding Cougar alive and well. Why was it becoming so hard to dislike this wild bay brute? Darn it to heck; She scowled acidly. Sombra was now seemingly desperate for a chance to redeem herself. She wanted to prove her distaste for him, but his reprehending words were of no real use to her, and she started to doubt whether she even had the energy to give him any sass at that moment.
A steady frown creased her brow and she stared at him coolly with her fierce blue eyes. Wise words indeed. Sombra became aware of the soft patter of water as it trickled from her cold wet form and made contact with the sandy floor. Her long and luxurious mane and tail clung in a rather bedraggled manner, curling slightly from the excessive moisture which currently ensnared her ashen tresses. As she made an effort to turn herself in the stallions direction, Sombra's withers gave way to an empowering eruption of pain, and fresh blood seeped from the wounds embedded deep and painfully into her flesh. Her bodies natural painkillers were quickly wearing thin, and how sore it was!
Never had she felt anything quite like it. It stung and ached terribly, causing her eyes to water slightly from the pain of it. Cougar began to explain to her the extension of her wounds, and that it would take a considerable length of time to fully heal, and to her thorough dismay, would be dreadfully painful! Oh, no. Sombra despaired. As it was, Sombra could barely tolerate it, never mind several days of this. But when he proceeded to display his impressive scars from a similar injury to her own, a sudden look of horror and realization crossed her features and she gawked at his scars, wide eyed. "You mean..." Sombra was mortified. "You mean that this... that this is going to scar?" She stared at it with fierce vehemence.
Oh no! How dreadful! If Cougar said anything else after that, she would not have heard the least bit of it. The thought of wearing a big hideous scar on her sleek white pelt simply terrified her. She prided very much in her looks. It was the one thing she obsessed over. She was certainly a fine specimen, born from a long line of elegantly proportioned horses, and she was by far the best looking of them all. She particularly prized in her Sapphire pigmented eyes. Everyone else in her family had either had near black eyes or hazel. Thus her having been born gifted with such startlingly blue eyes had most undoubtedly contributed to her unscripted beauty.
But now, everything had seemed to take a sudden blood curdling turn for the worst. In place of her looks, now rested a horrid and grotesque wound in the form of crescent moon, which was surely destined to scar. Thus, would come the mortifying end to her glamorous good looks and splendor. A dramatic approach to the situation to say the very least, but this was Sombra, no? Depressed by the unfortunate news of the molestation of her looks, Sombra watched as Cougar dropped his head and quenched his thirst from the Waterhole. Sombra felt ill suddenly. Having a drink of water was honestly the very last thing on this mares mind, she'd had her fill of natures finest. Not too mention she'd also had her fill of fun for one day. In fact, if she were to have anymore fun than already had, at this stage it would most probably kill her.
The moon stared down at them, looking anything but beautiful to Sombra considering the way she felt. When you got right down to it, the best way one could describe how the poor dear felt; Rapunzel with her hair cut off. After all, everyone knew that Rapunzel was certainly not Rapunzel without her ridiculous rope of hair! Ah how vain dear Sombra was, but this was not entirely her fault of course. It did not occur to her to lick the wound. The very idea would have repulsed her. She'd tasted blood once before, when she'd accidentally bitten her lip as a sixteen month old filly. Sombra had found it's copper flavor rather unsavory.
It also hadn't occurred to her that she was shivering with cold, being far too distracted to notice. It seemed the wolves had decided to lay off, much to Sombra's intense relief. But now there were other things troubling her, such as the darkness which now seemed to want to condemn them. Sombra grew nervous very quickly, and when the abrupt rustle of leaves broke out only a few feet from where she stood, the young Arab leaped forward so fast, she stumbled over her own front legs because of the awkward pain in her withers, and pranced passed Cougar into the shallow waters edge, kicking up a spray of water in her wake. Sombra promptly whisked her head around, paying no heed to the stallion, who must have thought her quite odd, and stared fearfully in the direction from which the noise had come from.
An armadillo jostled out from under the shrubs, blinked at the white form that was Sombra with it's small black eyes in a rather disinterested manner, and then carried on it's merry way, waddling awkwardly as it went. Sombra blushed fiercely and avoided eye contact with Cougar, realizing what a fool she was being. Her withers complained from the abrupt movements she had made, and Sombra began to feel the toll of her exhaustion. "I don't think I can take much more of this". She said weakly.
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Post by Cougar on Dec 6, 2009 23:35:00 GMT
"Why; yes" Cougar blinked, confused. Huh? So when did horses start worrying about aesthetics? Weren't they all already beautiful? And like worrying would help? A stallion like him certainly didn't care about a new scar. Nah. Boys like him would see these things like medals. The one with more medals is scary and you keep away. See? All cool. After the mountain lion attack, Cougar often won this first-sight contest, but his short age most definitely subtracted scary points.
"You're certainly not from around here?" He had asked before, but he couldn't help it. Looking at Sombra produced so many questions. She acted as if she had never been attacked by anything before. Never bitten, never scratched by anything... so where was this perfect paradise she grew on? Was there any vacant spot for him to sign up?
Nonetheless, his words were unheard as there was a little rustling of leaves in a nearby bush and the mare almost had a panic attack. Cougar reckoned it hadn't been his calmest day either, so his reaction was also pretty sudden, whirling around to face the 'threat' -- a most innocent armadillo.
Aw, and it was so cute! Clueless things armadillos were, and it just like, sniffed at them and went on its merry way. However, Cougar found it rather annoying instead of sweet, just how exasperating can the local fauna be? He was thinking; of course that all these years of exploration, traveling across the untamed lands, had tempered his personality and he didn't show just how on edge he was; but just a little retrospective was enough to bleach the mane of any horse.
He just rolled his eyes and turned towards Sombra like saying to her "Hey! It's just a false alarm," but she looked like she already knew so he didn't say a word.
This night so much had occurred that it felt as if whole weeks had gone by, but it must have been only a few hours. The moon was still high on the sky, along with a few clouds. Seeing the sorry state the girl was at, Cougar wished it wouldn't rain tonight. And that was a strange thing for a desert dweller to do. You just look at her, though, it was as if she would fall apart anytime soon, crumble, disappear, suffer a heart attack or something, something bad. Indeed she couldn't take much more than this -- and whether he showed it or not, neither could he.
This night he had met an impossible partner; he was pursued by ravenous wolves; pursued by wolves some more; impossible partner had fallen down a cliff... And all in one night? Insanity! Plus the worst part was that this could never be normal. A pack that big, starving, little less than skin and bone? He had never seen a wolf so desperate before as that alpha who had actually jumped down the cliff after the arab (after receiving a kick on the shoulder). A bear wouldn't do this, too many wolves, so the only viable explanation would be that humans had to have a hand on this. And this was B A D!
However, he wasn't about to panic now. Sombra had enough panic for both of them. Right now he was supposed to be the rational mind of this mess, or else they would both perish in the sand. Maybe some comic line would brighten things a bit...
"Well, girl, I suppose this may be no time for introductions, but if you don't tell me what you're called I'm going to have to call you Whitey -- and you're not gonna like that." He shook his mane to get rid of the excess water that 'Whitey' had splashed him when she fled. They had been playing this stupid game all day; he guessed he would continue it and see what happened... of course that he wouldn't abandon his diplomatic standing and get down to a 'let's just get the other angry' immaturity. Remember he was Mr. rational mind here.
Oh, well, saving the girl was more important than knowing her name; and if that was to be accomplished actions were to be taken quickly.
"Look, the sand takes a long time to cool off; it must still be pretty hot. It's your chance not to catch a pneumonia, for the night hasn't reached it's coldest point yet. Go now. I'll stand watch." He signaled with his head towards the little sand slope that was the exit of the place. It would feel bad to leave the supposed safety of the waterhole back into the barren sand where the wolves had been earlier. Nonetheless, it was likely to be Sombra's only chance, and the wolves were unlikely to return. Besides, they wouldn't go far, just where the sand wasn't shadowed by tress or cliff walls.
Without waiting, he went up the sand slope, inspected around and then turned towards Sombra. The road was clear.
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Sombra
Adolescent Foal
Co-Administrator
Dance 'til your dead
Posts: 70
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Post by Sombra on Dec 9, 2009 2:47:55 GMT
The young white contessa gave a faint snort of amusement and her lips wavered on the verge of a smirk at the stallions attempt to enlighten the whole predicament. As much as the thought of him referring to her as 'Whitey' displeased her, Sombra promptly decided to convert his words into a challenge. Oh really, what did she care anyway, and what did it matter? As if his words qualified as reason enough to finally inform him of her name. No, no. Sombra wouldn't budge that easily. She would most probably tell him her name eventually, so long as he refrained from asking for it.
You see, ever since she could walk and talk and strut her stuff with her inherited arrogance and supremacy, Sombra had struggled to obey orders of the most simplest kind. Her ego and pride was quite honestly too willful, and she could never quite bring herself to follow instructions. The young filly couldn't bare the thought of the satisfaction her parents and caretakers would receive when they would have her doing as they wished. She had to want to do it, and most certainly without being asked. Of course, she wasn't like this all of the time. On rare occasions, Sombra will comply willingly. It really just depends, though on what, most never seem too sure.
She is a tough nut to crack, and impossibly difficult to read. She never quite reveals anything, so most are always on guard in case they they are ever unfortunate enough to step out of line with her. As she grew older and more independent, her parents and family around her struggled to keep a tight rein on her, and in the end, regretfully let go and surrendered to her willfulness. Funnily enough however, Sombra became seemingly easier to tolerate, as she was no longer fighting them every inch of the way for her freedom. But enough about the past...
Ah well. She had certainly had more than her fair share of entertainment for one day. She'd met her very own Mr Maturity, and let us not forget his other many attributes such as his cockiness, strong will, smart mouthed and rather unnecessary comments; (Not that she could talk, being quite seriously the worst hypocrite of all time, but try having her admit it. Ha, now that would be something you'd be sorry ta' miss!) and so much more. Sombra could go on and on listing them, though one could hardly call them attributes. Yet still, as infuriating as it was, Sombra sort of liked him, in a painful, unbearable, yet bearable kind of way.
"G, go on then. Call m, me what you will. See if I care." She remarked, narrowing her cool blue eyes at him in a slightly humorous way. Soon enough however, he was going on about the hot dunes of sand which lay nearby out through their little oasis, which to say the very least, sounded more than a bit inviting. Boy was she cold! She'd have run there already had the thought of wolves not then proceeded to cloud her thoughts of all else, lingering there with an eerie, almost frightening spell of some kind. The mare frowned faintly, a soft crease marring her brow, and pouted her lower lip in a manner of unease. She hesitated.
"W, what if they c, come back?" She stuttered fearfully, but more so from the cold which currently had her ensnared in it's blood curdling chill. She knew there would be no turning back if they were to return, for she had most definitely had it. There'd be no more running on her part. Even if she had wanted to, she doubted very much she even bore the strength to escape their murderous clutches. They were so hungry too! No, Sombra couldn't bring herself to risk it. Feeling a little egoistically damaged, Sombra whisked her head around and stared through the numerous trees and plants of the desert paradise, her eyes seeking other options.
There had to be a cave somewhere. Anywhere. She'd curl up in a corner somewhere and attempt to generate some heat. The caves ought to be humid still, particularly in the deeper recesses of them. Sombra would be fine. But she needed to act immediately if she had any sense left in her. The ashen maiden turned swiftly on her hind legs, her muscles taut with the strain of such movement as her wounds moaned on cue, and she pranced forward into a seemingly effortless canter near the Waterholes edge, yet blowing hard through her nostrils as though doing so took every bit of energy she possessed. Which it did, understandably.
Cougar would no doubt be wondering what she thought she was doing. But she had no reason to doubt he'd soon figure her out and pursue her, whether to reprimand her behavior, or to follow suit because he didn't quite disagree with her ability to reason. Soon enough, Sombra came across a triangular entrance to a seemingly small cavern, and just as promptly as she had spotted it, she entered it's depths, a white flash disintegrating into the dark.
It was quite wide spread within it's warm moist walls, enough to fit at least four horses comfortably. There were three small crevices embedded in the ceiling, allowing the moonlight to seep through and give the space some light, as pale and limited as it appeared. Choosing the far right corner, Sombra's knees gave way underneath her, quickly followed by her hind legs as they too, folded beneath her. Heaving a wary sigh, she lowered her fine head and rested her soft velvet chin 'pon her shoulder, carefully avoiding distributing too much weight on it so as not to irritate the grotesque injury buried deep within her withers. Her eyes wavered on the brim of closing entirely as she shivered uncontrollably. But already, she felt a little warmer, although of course she was still very cold.
All the while, Sombra stared at the entrance in almost perfect silence, wondering if Cougar would make an appearance after all. She couldn't blame him if he had decided to head on his way from here and leave her be. Most would have been relieved to depart from her tiresome presence. Even though she accepted this quite willingly, why now, after all her obvious efforts to avoid the troublesome bay, did the prospect bother her?
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Post by Cougar on Dec 9, 2009 13:07:58 GMT
Noting the Arabian's uneasiness, Cougar raised his head, ears pitched forwards. For a minute he gazed at the distance, trying to read a signal of the wolves in the vegetation. Tense was the night air, not a sound except for the rustling of the wind in the leaves, there was a palm tree whose leaves occasionally clapped together and sounded like a gigantic bird flapping... and the persistent chirping of crickets. It must have only been one or two insects chirping, but it sounded like a thousand of these noisy things!
Alright, alright; so the night wasn't very peaceful. But what was the case? The air itself was heavy with tension like a bowstring...
"I don't think they'll come back at all. Too many defeats in one night." He assured, without turning.
However, hearing under the nocturnal insectoid orchesta's concert Sombra's faint steps leaving, he instantly decided to follow, heeding his instinct's directions of not staying alone for anything of the world. Don't stray outside the herd! -note the use of the word herd; Cougar was certain 'Whitey' wouldn't turn down his earlier offer after his heroic performance. Of course, he didn't know 'Whitey' enough, it seemed...-. But he left not without a last nervous look at that spot in the oasis vegetation over his shoulder. He really hoped they wouldn't return. No sane wolf would.
But then again, those wolves weren't normal.
Ah, the torment of doubt! Cougar would have almost said that having the wolves right there, where he could see them, was better than this uncertain suffering. Would they be just there, waiting at the corner's bend? Hiding in the shadows, climbed on the rocks, waiting to pounce with sharp claws and teeth? Oh no! Let's not get started with the things that pounced -- with sharp claws and teeth! That he had survived a cougar attack didn't mean that he was without a well-founded irrational fear of the creatures in question.
Cougar stopped and didn't follow Sombra who disappeared inside the cave. A slight grimace was on his face, for he knew that cave was inhabited by tarantulas. Should I tell her? His ears lowered at the thought. She did say she couldn't take anymore, wouldn't it be too much to bother that poor miserable mare after she had finally resolved to have some sleep? Ah, but she'd find out sooner or later anyways...
There was no way he was getting in there (again) so he climbed a sandy slope towards the top of the cave and peeked his head through the gap in the cave roof.
"Hey girl, hey! I wouldn't sleep there if I was you! That cave is full to the top with spiders!" The stallion warned. Yes, he was exaggerating, but Sombra would do well to heed the 'get outta there immediately' message and leave or, excuse the pun, things were gonna get hairy. Because if they weren't, by no means, deadly to a horse, they were disgusting to the extreme, and they could still bite you and inject you some poison similar to a bee's... only that like fifty times larger.
In the desert you had to sleep under the stars. The emerald sea of grass blades was your blanket and the wild flowers your slippers. Because coyotes, scorpions, rattlesnakes, spiders, cougars and what have you already seemed to have taken the best spots. Life here was rough but he couldn't imagine it any other way -- this was his home and the place he truly belonged to.
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Post by Administration on Feb 23, 2010 22:21:26 GMT
((May I put this thread to the archives?))
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Sombra
Adolescent Foal
Co-Administrator
Dance 'til your dead
Posts: 70
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Post by Sombra on Feb 27, 2010 20:02:46 GMT
Aren't we going to continue with it? :-o
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Post by Administration on Feb 28, 2010 1:30:56 GMT
Sure. Reply then
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Sombra
Adolescent Foal
Co-Administrator
Dance 'til your dead
Posts: 70
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Post by Sombra on Feb 28, 2010 18:15:40 GMT
Okies. ^__^;;
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