He was never far behind. Some call it stalking, he.. called it being overprotective. Or something; rather, something he wasn't quite sure of. All he knew is that he often felt his stomach roll, his intestines knot, and his chest tighten. Many times she never even knew he was there.. sometimes that might be for the better.
Now that he thought of it, he was sure he was probably just.. ill, or something as such. But then, if that was the case, she could cure him, could she not? The little Champion of Wisdom, ever so feverish in her duties.. surely she had a cure for him.
Or maybe she was the cure.
So lost in his thoughts he was, he wandered further away from the path that his little bird had taken. After all, all she was doing was wandering innocently along the beach with.. their.. two sons. Such an odd thing to think.. his children. Surely she must have been mad, to put up with him for this long; he wasn't even so sure what she saw in him - a big brute with no tact and little emotion. Those were not exactly appealing aspects, in any fashion or in any stretch of imagination.
But that shriek ripped him from his own imagination.
Nerves lit up and both ombre ears immediately swung forward like radars, and he felt his heart skip a beat. Where was she? Where was he? How stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! How can you forget where you are? How can you not know? When it matters most, why are you now lost? What the fuck is your purpose if you don't do what you're supposed to and PAY ATTENTION?
Muscles bunched, nerves sending electroshock signals across his body as he immediately lurched forward, not even knowing where he was going. His mind raced, but it was a blur. Why couldn't he think? For fuck's sake! He had commanded an empire, but now, all of the sudden, he couldn't defog his mind enough to figure out where the fuck he was going? Left from right?
He did know this: he was too far away.
It took him minutes that felt like hours, fire roaring through his veins and singing every nerve it passed. He felt numb, but he felt alive; the adrenaline kicked his heart right in the balls, so hard his stomach felt it too. He had been up along the cliff-side while Araxes had wandered the beach below.. he was stupid not to realize that was too far away.
People hated her because of him. This was his fault.
He realized this as he rounded the corner of the path that lead onto the beach.. realized this as soft sand met his hooves, splattering along his hocks and cracked hooves. For a brief moment, his haunches slipped out from under him with the moist sand, and he stumbled. Breath caught in his throat, and eyes the color of blood searched feverishly for his little bird. He had crossed onto a path a few feet above the beach itself, a path that weaved alongside the cliff and was moderately hidden by a natural outcropping of bushes along the trail. She may not be able to see him immediately, but he would certainly be able to see her.
She wasn't on the beach. Where was she?
In the distance, he saw a figure standing on a large outcropping of rocks below him, and he felt the stress flood out of him. She must have just found something that either excited or briefly scared her.. and for a moment, Tor slowed down, finally breathing. He scolded himself for panicking so badly... forced his heart to calm, forced his hooves to slow, now trotting slowly along the path towards the direction of the figure.
It was then that the wave crashed over the rocks, and the crumpled little bird heaved a saltwater breath onto the jagged outcropping. Tor stopped dead in his tracks, heart dropping and his eyes momentarily widening as his ears slapped back against the crown of his horns. He was maybe 50 feet from the duo - his little bird, crumpled and broken, and a figure he did not recognize. Heard the cruel words that slipped from the shadowed figure's lips.
And rage boiled in the marrow of his bones.
With a fury like fire, like gasoline, like intoxicating madness, his muscles tightened and sprang him forward, heaving his substantial mass surprisingly quick along the path. There was no direct diversion from this path that lead onto the beach, and the farther along the path he galloped, the higher and farther away from the beach it climbed... higher and farther from the duo on the rocks.
And at some point, he made an unconscious decision - and thankfully his body agreed.
Colossal hooves thundered along the path, sweat slicking his coat and dripping into his eyes. Hot breath stung his nostrils, his muscles screamed; he didn't care. When he was finally close enough to the pair, his mind blocked out all distress signals his body was sending his brain.. and thick, weathered hooves left the dirt of the path.
Haunches like coiled steel springs had catapulted him off the small cliff-side path at an angle, roughly 8 feet higher than and 10 feet away from where Araxes and her assaulter stood. His concern only lay with the little spotted, crumpled mess on the rocks - and because of her, he lept from the path much farther away than he normally would, ensuring that the angle he charged towards them at was sharp enough that she would not be in his aim. He wasn't even sure he was going to be able to slow his momentum to avoid tumbling into Terminus himself, but at this point, that was not his main concern. It was so very, very far from it.
Instead, once he was sure of his trajectory, his massive head tucked down and close to his chest, the lethal tips of his pronged horns striking a deadly aim. He wanted to spear that bastard right in the ribs, and fling him away far, far away from his little bird.
Those regal horns that graced his head - sharp as they were impressive - had not seen Novus blood, but tonight they would. He would make sure of it.
chest cavity: closed // words: 1057 // headshot
@Araxes, you will be the death of me
[ please tag @Torstein in all replies ]
I have three eyes
TWO TO LOOK ONE TO SEE
