[P] OH, VERDANT TOWERS!

[El Toro]

A pale stallion stood in the middle of the woods. Shifted his weight, looked around, sniffed. Sniffed again, shifted his weight, looked around. A "Hmmm," pressed through his nostrils, groaned like a branch in the wind on one of these old trees. He turned around, stood still, then eased into motion, stepping over winding roots and ducking under low branches; these were ones he'd seen before (and - though he would never admit it - ones he had both tripped over and bumped his head on at least once, each). Two cattle-tails swished behind him as he walked, in a circle, purposely, his fair head in the air, sniffing for something familiar. He sighed. "Everything's familiar at this point." He didn't even bother to complete his circle, instead deviating and heading further into the trees. He didn't know it was further, rather than the direction he wanted to go in, where the trees grew sparse and finally tapered out to the plains. Toro had a nagging feeling that he wasn't supposed to be here, but he didn't know enough to know why. So he kept walking.

    In front of a very large, very gnarly tree, Toro paused. He squinted up at the canopy of leaves, the ancient oak was a shelter in its own right. He wandered if any rain could reach the ground on which he stood. "You look familiar." Maybe I'm onto something. There was another old tree on the other end of the woods, wider, and older, and it was most certainly not this one. The stallion continued on in this direction, further in Dusk territory, little did he know. His ears pricked at every cracking branch and rustling leaf; it was one thing to be lost, another to be oblivious. He didn't like it here, anyway; the trees reminded him far too much of the woods his sire would wander into, the woods in which he would die. Besides that, it was dark, and the trunks congested, and the leaves were good hiding places for basically everything... There were plenty of reasons not to like the woods. It wasn't just about dad. How could it be? It'd been years. Two years, three seasons, give him a moment and he'll know the days. He stopped in front of a bush, full of autumn berries, untouched - poisonous. He moved on. His tails swished; he was beyond impatience. He was just tired, now, and it would be nice if there was someone around here that could give him directions. He was starting to get the feeling that the old tree back there was not the old tree he thought it was.

@Myfanwy

[Myfanwy]

Myfanwy, may you spend your lifetime
“”
Beneath the midday sunshine's glow,

The hunger was coming.

Autumn had only just begun, but Myfanwy had seen enough winters to sense the changing weather and shrink at the inexorable march of time. Honestly, it only took one. Wanderlust pulled at her hooves and her heart, calling her toward bountiful harvests, and today she answered the call by leaving the water behind and donning the tenuous trappings of horsehood, that she might pretend for just a moment that winter was only a time of cold and crystal-white.

Myfanwy slipped through Viride Forest as silently as she haunted the eddying pools of her creekside home. Sunlight seemed as frightful and exciting as each twisting shadow as its leaf-dappled rays played along her shimmering lilac skin and set her moon-white hair alight. She knew these woods like a bird on the wing, knowing only by the quiet beckoning of water where safety lay, and each breath of wind through the treetops thrilled her blood like the rattle of sun-bleached teeth and bones.

A rustle rose above the gentle scrape of turning leaves and she pressed herself against a sentinel oak with such urgency that the pearls of her veil bounced against her freckled cheek. They moved erratically like prey, and the part of her that yearned for the water yearned also for such uncertainty. How easy it would be to lead him away to the creek, to push back the lean times for a little longer.

How easy.

With a breath to settle her racing heart the lilac lady crept out from behind her hiding place as supple as a sigh, her bright eyes quizzical behind the sheer veil covering her face as she beheld the strange stallion for the first time.

He gleamed in the dappled sunlight, a white tower of perplexed horseflesh venting his frustration in the acid stroke of his tails and the aggressor's curve of his horns. This one was not of the water, or even of Novus. Myfanwy wondered what he would look like underwater and immediately after wondered if she should simply flee deer-like back into the woods, but the trick was up. Certainly with those long legs, he could outpace her - on land.

"Excuse me," she interceded, her brightening songbird voice belying the warring factions in her head, "are you lost?"


And on your cheeks O may the roses
“”
Dance for a hundred years or so.

@El Toro

[El Toro]

Frustration tugged at Toro's chest and sent his tails whipping against his hip, a groan of defeat wrestling itself from his airways as he threw himself against a tree - anything to take the weight off. He regretted it, immediately, the old bark scraped against his skin and pressed hard on his smooth flank, gnarled and less hospitable than predicted. Toro rolled his eyes, shifting pounds of muscle to balance back on those four pristine legs and - surprise slid behind a brawler's visage, he resisted those urges to jump back or snort, standing his found-again ground and looking directly at the mare. She spoke: "Excuse me, are you lost?" He stared a minute; her voice was enchanting, her form delicate, lilac, seemed soft and fine as a queen's bedding, must be. Opals looked over her pearls and liked what they saw. His voice was deep, not overly so, just boyish enough for him to like it. "I guess that's a good way to put it." Toro foced himself into comfort, settling his weight on one side rather than all, alert but not obviously. He pretended the shock wore off faster than it did; he was made uncomfortable by the way she snuck up on him and he wondered what else could do the same.

His eyes traveled along her frame, slight and fragile-seeming in its make. The horn was useless for anything but scraping bark off that damn tree right there, which would kill it, eventually, but against a living thing? Form, no function. Her coat glittered like starlight in the fog, attractive, appealing, something wonderful hidden in the beyond. It was beyond him; everything was in-your-face but the insecurities, buried, but his gaze rested on that which was so obviously meant to obscure: the veil. It'd caught his eye at first glance, but he'd forced himself to look around, to assess for physical prowess and beauty, only the latter of which he'd found. The veil was curious, seemingly ineffective for all he knew. He could still see her eyes. They shone iridescent, a multitude of shades like his own, without the cracks and the fire. It was the sun passing through the fog, a rainbow. Pretty, strange. Pretty strange, he mused. He stopped at her eyes, didn't look down at the dangling pearls or return to her attractive legs. Toro said, "Do you know your way around these woods?"
@Myfanwy

[Myfanwy]

Myfanwy, may you spend your lifetime
“”
Beneath the midday sunshine's glow,

I guess that's a good way to put it, the stranger said, and Myfanwy smiled brightly, a layer of her caution chipping away in its wake. This was no predator come to end her life. If there was hunger in his eyes, it was not the sort that ended in butchery.

His pale coat veritably glowed against the autumn leaves turning all around them, and his opalescent eyes were nearly as striking as her own. Did he have a little kelpie in him, perhaps? Not likely - a kelpie would know the water at the very least, even in the deepest woods. A kelpie would be wary of lovely creatures with fay voices and stardust on their cheeks. No, he just happened to be fancy. Horses could be fancy, too.

He spoke again. This time Myfanwy giggled around her reply, coyly passing his vagueness right back to him. "I guess that depends which direction you want to go." Now that the first timorous moments had passed to reveal he probably wasn't going to try eating her, the musicality of her voice grew with her boldness. And the lilac girl didn't even have to like to him: she sensed the water nearby, yes, but knew the forest only so far as she was willing to ignore the tether of her own comfort zone. Where the feeling stopped, she would probably end up as lost as he.

Settling back onto her white-splashed hoof, Myfanwy tilted her head to study him in a different light. His tails were endearing and so were the curved horns. Perhaps she would let him decide whether to go visit the river or not - even if he didn't know that was what he was doing.

"What'd you come here for, if you didn't know the way?" Her tone added a neat little 'silly goose' without stooping to the point of actually calling him out - a soft touch, almost considerate. Or perhaps charming. Myfanwy tried to be both.


And on your cheeks O may the roses
“”
Dance for a hundred years or so.

@El Toro

[El Toro]

A gentle half-grin settled across his features at her reply. "I guess that depends which direction you want to go."  He liked the way she turned it back to him; she gave no more than he offered, and yet, Toro did not feel his ego assaulted, nor his competence questioned. Her words were soft and gentle and he wanted to stroke them as one might a newborn animal or a puffed dandelion. It would tickle; he was certain. "What'd you come here for, if you didn't know the way?" His competence, questioned. He wanted to backtrack, ask her where she was going, did she know about these woods because he, he knew something- he paused. Mentally, a step back. A short laugh, not the nervous kind but the how cute are you? kind, a would-be gentleman in front of a pretty girl. The grin was complete, now, but it had gone from half of something genuine to a whole of something fake. He said, his tone slightly exasperated - with himself, only, he was quite silly, wasn't he? - "Well, I was taking a walk," his eyes danced up to the withering auburn canopy, "and before I knew it I was here! Funny how that happens, isn't it?" He didn't add the part about I've been walking in circles for hours or, I wish I knew what I was doing, or, what was felt most deeply, most buried, lying to you makes me feel like I'm dying, just a little. It was melodramatic and he kept it to himself. Pretty girls didn't make you feel like dying. El Toro wouldn't court the truth.

    His tails swished idly, comfortably. He knew a game for her to play. "As for the direction...I haven't a clue, really. I've never been one for directions." He dared, without pause, "Do you think you could show me a way out?" Propositions were commonplace for him; he figured he could get what he wanted without trying too hard. And there were a few things he wanted.

@myfanwy

[Myfanwy]

Myfanwy, may you spend your lifetime
“”
Beneath the midday sunshine's glow,

Myfanwy's mind changed like the weather, drawn along like a reluctant passenger in the stagecoach of her emotions. In that way and others she was very much one of the fair folk, hiding out deep in the woods, mysterious and alluring, choosing whether to bless or curse the wanderer across her path with the consistency of a coin flip unless appeased by ritual offerings and magic words.

But the lilac mare could not be appeased by a bowl of milk left overnight by an open window. She wanted adventure - hers or someone else's - and in its absence she was only a predator.

She tilted her head and beamed at the pale stallion's exasperation, stardust glittering upon her cheeks. "Oh I'd be happy to help, but you probably want to work on those navigation skills sometime." Glancing quickly around herself, ears trained as though tuning into a signal that El Toro couldn't sense. At this distance, the Rapax River was more of a feeling than reality, but it called to her all the same. "You can't always trust every stranger you meet in the wilderness."

He most certainly couldn't trust her, but that probably wouldn't stop him. The white stallion was, for the time being, at her mercy.

Swishing her tail in a cascade of moonwashed silk, the kelpie sidled toward him, catching his opalescent eye through the sheer fabric of her veil. Come away, her gaze seemed to whisper, come away to the water. "Out's this way."

She led him toward the river.


And on your cheeks O may the roses
“”
Dance for a hundred years or so.

@El Toro

[El Toro]

OH, TO BE HERE ON THE GROUND

"Oh I'd be happy to help, but you probably want to work on those navigation skills sometime."  Toro gave a short but good-natured sigh. "Of course." "You can't always trust every stranger you meet in the wilderness." Her words did little to make him think, he only laughed, brushing it off as a cute joke. Toro followed blindly at the swish of her tail, having caught her gaze, he was all the more confident in his ability to charm, if not seduce, this forest maiden. He liked the way she joked and the way she moved, but he liked the way she felt especially. He had the faintest feeling that she was not real, an illusion in the autumnal light, gone if he blinked or moved too quickly. Her presence felt untouchable. It made him want to follow her more.

Real or not, he couldn't bear to walk beside her in silence, and so, he opened his mouth. "So if you know these woods, I'm guessing you're from around here?" His tails swung idly, he spoke after a beat. "I'm not, but you could've figured that out, I'm sure. It took months to get here, maybe a year." His eyes traveled over her neck and back and hips. "It was worth it." Toro's gaze lingered on the stars in her coat before wandering back up to the treetops, suffocating and auburn.


"What I say,"

What I think,

CREDITS

@myfanwy

[Myfanwy]

Myfanwy, may you spend your lifetime
“”
Beneath the midday sunshine's glow,

Myfanwy knew what it felt like to be meat. She had grown up under the constant threat of butchery by Ilati hunting parties, prized for the magical properties of her body as an object rather than for the depth of her personality. She knew what it was like to covet meat, too, for she was as much predator as she was prey, and Toro's hungry eyes didn't escape her notice as they crept over her delicate frame.

The kelpie listened, doing her best to maintain the thread of his words as he spoke, even through the anticipatory pangs of a hunter's impatience warred with her own nervousness in her mind. As prey, he dwarfed her. It made him a threat every bit as much as his wicked-sharp horns.

...I'm guessing you're from around here?

The lilac lady nearly missed his half-question through her distraction - a misstep mercifully concealed by his own eagerness to move on to himself. As he looked away, she saw the familiar thickening of undergrowth that heralded the Rapax river. Its dull roar had been needling her ears for minutes.

"I am and I'm not," Myfanwy replied, unintentionally coy. To be honest she didn't know the safest way to answer the question, and the truth of the matter was slightly stranger than pure fiction. "I wasn't born here, but this is where I live now." Nothing about why. She wasn't ready to explain that much to herself yet, let alone him. The river loomed, a living and breathing thing before their eyes; Myfanwy smiled sweetly. "That's the way out." Across its expanse lay the Iluster Meadow and, somewhere in that vast openness, the Dawn Court, which she had heard described to her but never visited.

She had but to lift her veil, and he should step gladly into the embrace of a watery grave, but curiosity gnawed at her.

"Why was it worth it?"

And on your cheeks O may the roses
“”
Dance for a hundred years or so.

@El Toro

[El Toro]

YOU'RE LIKE ME / NOWHERE TO BE / THINGS WE WANT / MOSTLY FREE

She answered vaguely, coyly, he enjoyed it. "I am and I'm not." He chuckled a little at this, like she could've said the dumbest thing in the world and it would be okay because wasn't she pretty. He didn't know what she meant. He didn't really care to. He was the same as her, he presumed, being born somewhere else and living here now, though "here" was relative, it was on this continent but not quite the same place. Toro followed her gaze to the river. "That's the way out." It didn't look familiar. "Funny. That's not the way I came." He almost had time to think about it but she asked, "Why was it worth it?"

The question caught him off-guard. He'd meant it as a passing flirtation, thinking its meaning obvious. Frankly, he hadn't thought much about it when he'd said it, and had almost forgotten by the time she asked. It was insignificant, but clearly not to her. The pale stallion did not panic, though - he was at least mildly comfortable in these sort of situations, when he was feeling confident enough to think himself worthy of a conversation with a glittering mist kind of girl. "Well, for starters, you're lovely," he paused, not good enough, "but there was a lot to get away from. It's not so much worth it to be here as to be not there." Toro quieted, his gaze separating from her to drift upon the trees and passing birds and animals. He looked to her again. "I wonder if you might understand something like that? I don't dislike it here, but I mostly feel the same. There's different people. Prettier girls. Heh," he half-grinned at her. He'd overcompensated for repetitious language with personal but relatively shallow speech. He yearned to deflect it back to his preferred subject: flirting.

@Myfanwy beats (not gore) || beats (gore-ish)

"What I say,"

What I think,

credit