Martin had never seen a bison before in his life.

In the autumn following his first naming day, a wandering minstrel had come out of the south to visit the vale and regale its residents with tales of the world beyond Blackjaw Peak's protective shadow. She sang lays of epic battles and glorious riches, and interlaced in her vivid stories were morsels about the creatures themselves that called such distant places home. In her description of these exotic animals, she employed a trick of vague comparative language that, to this day, he had not quite fully understood.

The gilded unicorn had proceeded east through the Dawn Court lands, leaving its meadows and forests behind to fully explore the land that would become his new home. Eluetheria Plain appeared to him like very much a sister of the florid Illuster Meadow - less colorful, perhaps, but no less vast - with bigger skies and an impression of vastness only accentuated by the dark shapes meandering across the landscape. Compared to the great grass sea they grazed, the animals looked small, and it wasn't until he got a bit nearer that he gained a full appreciation of what he was actually seeing.


Bison are big, children. Bigger than you would imagine. Are you picturing it now? Yes, they're even bigger than that.

Suddenly, everything the minstrel said made a hell of a lot more sense.

Martin had indeed imagined them to be very big, and in the arrogance of his youth was absolutely certain that he couldn't possibly misjudge them, because he was smart enough to make sure his mental image of a buffalo was extra big. These wandering hills of fur and sinew were beyond his adolescent self's comprehension and nearly still beyond it now. He jigged briefly in place before giving the nearest of the creatures a wide birth, muscles taut in case the lumbering beast - a bull that had turned its massive head to fix him with a beady-eyed look - decided he was a threat.

That was about when he noticed the young painted mare observing the bison at a safe distance. Lashing his tail to shed a bit of the energy humming electrically through his flesh, Martin circled back toward her. The bison had already seen fit to ignore his accidental intrusion and return to their grazing.

"That's not at all what I was expecting," he said more to himself than to her, his face flushed. "I haven't interrupted anything, have I?"


@Johari

She watched them, the females grazing while their young played and a few males looked on. The mare was absorbed in the action, tail flicking absently behind her every few seconds. It was with her rapt attention that she easily noticed... something, in the midst of the herd. A pale shape flicking about amongst the brown, disturbing the peace as he passed. Johari blinked, shocked and confused as she wondered just who was brash enough to walk about amidst a herd of bison. Was he mad? To her it seemed like he was flirting with disaster... and perhaps it would catch up to him.

The young mare watched with baited breath as a large male took notice of the intruder. Would something terrible happen this day? She felt herself wanting to shout out to him, to tell him to back away, or run, or something... but she knew that yelling could only bring on something worse. However, he would get off easily as the male would lose interest as he skirted away. Jo exhaled and flicked her ears, happy that nothing bad would happen today.

What's more this fellow seemed rather polite, much more manners than the last guy she'd met. Should she be upset that he interrupted her herd-watching? Perhaps not. At this point in time she'd only been observing them rather than sketching and now that they were on the fringes and the herd was left alone they had gone back to their normal activities. Hardly anything for her to be upset about. The mare smiled and shook her head, hoping to set his mind at ease that everything was just fine. "You were very lucky there, I was afraid that male was going to attack you." Fortunately he probably saw a scrawny horse as hardly anything of a threat. A very good thing for them. "I was only observing the herd, nothing much to interrupt... now, if you'd scared the herd away," Which would be something of an amazing feat. "Then I might have something to say." Amusement colored her soft-spoken words as she looked at him... and noticed his fine form and strange markings and jewel on his chest. Now that was something you didn't see every day and she found her curiosity piqued. Who exactly was this stranger?

"Are you from around here?" For she was certain she'd never met anyone like him before.