[P] Fire and Earth

[Auru]

Plop, plop, plop.

The man was walking with a stilted gait through the muck. The murk was still warmed from the long summer season, but as the intermittent chills began to thicken the mud and thick sludge he trod through, the adhesive substance was gaining more and more of a tendency to adhere itself to his fetlocks. They weren't too terribly long, but with a longer than average coat, he had a tendency to pick up bits and pieces of his environment whenever he traveled somewhere.

And currently, his environment was trying to stick to him like cement glue.

The brown man gave a startled squeal as he stepped on a hidden rock beneath the muck's surface, his hoof scraping the moss-slicked and rain-smoothed surface roughly as he went tumbling forwards. Pain flared through the lower ends of the limb as he fell, and he ripped his leg up from the water and held the twisted ankle beneath his chest, not that it saved him from losing his balance. He landed with a rough splash in the murk, the mud and grimy water drenching his face as it splashed up with his fall, copper eyes screwing shut as the liquid coated him. His nostrils were above the surface, thank Vespera, but he still felt all of the underside of his body and quite a bit of his sides soundly submerged, to say nothing of the muck that had splashed up onto him.

His ears were wilted, and eyes facing in no particular direction in a deadpan stare of annoyance.

Oh for Vespera's sake, seriously?!?

A small part of his brain whispered that maybe he ought to just stay here and accept his fate as part of the terrain, better to just give up now than have to deal with the frustrating task of trying to wash the muck from his mane and coat. At least this way he wouldn't have to move either.

He figured he could make a good log. Maybe in time he'd blend in well enough that he could trip up passerby and then he'd have a companion for his misery. Misery loves company.

Closing his eyes with a heavy sigh through his nose, the man set about getting his hooves back underneath him from where he'd gone sprawling. It took more than few hop-like pushes to drag his chest free of the murk and push himself onto his haunches, but using his good leg he managed to attain a sitting position, getting a few deep breaths from the exertion of clawing his way free of the thick murk before assessing the damage.

He flexed the twisted hoof a little, wincing at the small flare of pain as he did so. It didn't feel like he'd sprained or seriously damaged anything, just jerked the joint into a way it wasn't supposed to go and it had rightly protested. He tentatively put his weight back on it, the joint protesting with a burning ache but not enough to deter him, he'd just walk it off. (Or sleep it off, once he found whatever he had gotten up to go looking for. What was he even doing up again? Oh, right, food. As per usual.)

Now that he had his forelegs figured out, it only took a little more pulling to get his back end up and out of the muck, the man feeling his whole body give a twitching as he felt thick rivulets of cold swamp water begin to run down his flanks. Ugh, that was unpleasant to say the least. But he wasn't freezing, he supposed, just uncomfortable.

After giving into the momentary urge to shake himself like some kind of dog, the man gave his injured hoof another small flex, testing how it coped with his weight by taking a few hesitant steps. Not as bad as before, even though it had only been a few moments. He could definitely just walk it off. So he set back off through the swamps, looking for something to eat. Nothing spectacular really, he wasn't looking for anything in particular. Just whatever happened to strike his fancy as he walked.

@Israfel

OOC: He's not got the most interesting of lives. xD

[Israfel]

Israfel

She loved Terrastella.

It was beautiful. The view from the Court citadel was breathtaking. On one side was the ocean, vast and brilliant and gorgeous beyond all words. She could spend hours upon the cliff sides, soaring among the gulls and the sea breeze, kicking and playing within the ocean water. On the other was the vibrant green grass plains, endless and positively a thrill to sprint upon. It reminded her so much of the World’s Edge, of her long-lost homeland, and it ached… But slowly that familiar ache was lessening, a scab as opposed to a raw, open wound. One day it would scar. Israfel just wasn’t sure if she was ready for that moment or not.

So while she found Terrastella beautiful, her adoration of the land she had called home ended where the Tinea Swamp began.

She did not love it. Quite the opposite, actually. Israfel wasn’t sure if she had ever loathed a piece of land as much as she detested the bog.

It stank. It was humid. Everything felt wet and soggy and moist and it was everything that she hated about a place. The Daughter of the Sun did everything in her power to avoid the place like the plague. It was a blight upon Terrastella’s beauty and she rarely ventured there, save for whenever it was necessary. Like right now.

Patrols were both a beacon of pride and a bane of her existence, and since no one else felt it obligatory to patrol the Swamp, it left her to the task. It was the same way she had stumbled upon Diarmuid and had brought him home, sloshing and slopping his way through the peat moss and ruin. This was no different.

“…. Fuck” she moaned, the curse falling in a forlorn groan from rose-kissed lips, “Why do I volunteer for this?” Because she desperately wanted to make a name for herself among the Dusk Court. She desperately wanted to prove her worth, not wanting to throw away her shot. Sooner or later, someone would take notice, right? Even if it meant doing all of the grunt work, like patrolling the fucking Tinea Swamp, where no one would probably plan an ambush anyway because you could hardly breathe from the stink and the air. Every family had its ugly duckling, of course. The swamp just happened to be Terrastella’s.

Wading through the muck and the filth, ignoring the shit-brown sod clung to the Sun Daughter’s ivory coat, vermilion eyes narrowed as she hauled herself through the water. It was difficult to remain upon the high ground when everything was wet. One wrong move and the earth would give out from beneath careless hooves, sinking and sucking until you were stuck. It was nasty and ugly and, well… You got the point.

Just as it had with Diarmuid, her patrol through the swamp did not go as planned. Another could be seen, filthy and caked in muck and grime from the sullied water. Israfel did not recognize him, nor could she place his scent. After all, the only thing she could rightfully smell was peat moss, stagnant water, and decay. His mane is thick and long, overgrown, from the looks of it. Through her years, Israfel has seen many an oddities, both in this life and her previous one, so staring at this stranger now, she couldn’t help but feel familiar with his differences. She remembered, albeit barely, Osiris, the wolf-equine hybrid that had haunted the misty trees of the World’s Edge. There had been many others like him; hybrids of all sorts, oddities that hadn’t quite ‘fit in’ with societies little niche of ’perfection’. This man did not appear to be hybridized from anything. He was simply unique, and that, instantaneously, rid Israfel of her loathing in regards to the swamp and instead drew her closer, curiosity peaked.

He moved at an uncertain, gangly pace, as though in pain. Had something happened? Was he injured? Dragging herself to the nearest high ground, hooves sinking slightly into peat moss and moist soil, Israfel called out to him. The sound of her voice carried easily through the humid air, cutting through the short distance between them. “The Swamp is hardly a place to wander,” she called in greeting, vermilion depths sparking and fierce, but not maliciously, “Are you alright?” Lost, perhaps? Who was he? She couldn’t recall seeing him before…

x - x

@Auru

[Auru]

So preoccupied was he with his own mild pain that he was unaware of the approach of another. And truthfully, he should have been. He was a skulking swamp monster, able to hide among the dank decay with his messy and darkly colored coat, but it seemed that his visitors as of late were always the exact opposite.

Rannveig, Florentine, and now this one.

He reacted in a similar fashion to her approach as he had the others.

What was it with brightly colored women and sneaking up on him?

"The swamp is hardly a place to wander, are you alright?"

He froze in place, brain taking the split second it took her to speak to process the situation, before an instinctive reaction set in, and the man shrieked in fright at the unexpected approach. Unlike some of his previous moments, however, he managed to stay on his hooves, even as he leapt a foot in the air. He came back down and stumbled, yes, but he didn't completely fall over. He distantly supposed that was an improvement if nothing else.

Ignoring the twinging in his hoof, he spun around, ears back and teeth bared as he came face to face with a pegasus of a brilliant and lightly colored coat. Well, not so much face to face, as she still stood a short distance away, but so that they were both now facing one another.

Copper eyes met vermilion as he took note of the woman standing on the highest ground she could reach, a flurry of thoughts flitting through his mind one after the other. To intimidate him? To simply get as far away from the bog as possible? To give herself the better vantage point with which to attack? He couldn't decide, and unbidden, a small whimper whined in the back of his throat, nearly inaudible to him, despite being right there, but present nonetheless.

What did she want from him?

She had said something, after all it was her voice that had startled him. But for the life of him he couldn't recall the words.

She hadn't sounded aggressive, it had been the suddenness of her speech that frightened him so, not the tone nor the words. Even if he couldn't stop the traitorous whispers that murmured their 'what if's. What if she was simply acting non threatening to get him relaxed so that she could attack with less resistance? What if she had been telling him to get out of her swamp and he simply hadn't heard? What if she had been asking him for directions so as how to best attack Dusk Court? What if... What if...

He needed to respond before she thought him mad.

Are you not?

But he couldn't remember what she had said (asked?).

So he did the best he could, given the situation.

"E-Eh?"

Can't even manage a simply 'pardon', or 'excuse me'. How do you ever expect to manage to fit into court life?

True, but he had been here for nearly a year, and had spent the whole time huddled in the swamplands. There wasn't much 'fitting in' available to him at this point.

@Israfel

[Israfel]

Israfel

It wasn’t the reaction she had been expecting.

Israfel stood upon the squishy, sinking earth, doing her best to ignore the muck that clung to her legs and underbelly as she waited for the stranger to register her beckoning greeting. The reaction that she received, however, was not one she could have even fathomed. He balked, letting out a horrific shriek of surprise, before whirling about abruptly to face her. A single ear tipped back and the Sun Daughter took a minute step backwards, wondering if perhaps she should have allowed this stranger his space.

They met eyes, vermilion gazing with unbridled confusion into rich copper. Despite the way that he lashed out at her arrival, with gnashing teeth and pinned ears, there seemed to be a look akin to fear that blossomed upon his face. Israfel, while not a professional at reading physical signs of discomfort, could easily recognize when she was intruding, and as such, the young shield-maiden took yet another step back. The feeling of gilded hooves squelching in the sod and peat moss didn’t register, not when she was warily eyeing the stallion that stood a few paces ahead of her.

He looked afraid and uncertain, unpredictable in what he might do. That enough was reason for caution. A terrified creature could be far more dangerous than a calm one, and Israfel did not want to take any unnecessary risks. Doing her best to relax, not wishing to startle him any more than she already had, the Sun Daughter remained stationary where she stood, willing coiled muscles and joints to relax in an attempt to appear unobtrusive.

His words, well, word, was a simple croak of a sound. ’E-Eh?’. An ivory ear tipped forward once more, head tilting curiously. Was he alright? Perhaps a little touched in the head?

“Sorry,” she decided to say, hoping that he could hear the apologetic tone in her voice, “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just… Are you lost? Injured?” Vermilion eyes, typically fierce and consuming like scorching flames, held a reserved sort of sympathy as they glanced downward towards the leg that the stranger favored. Just as quickly did her gaze dart upwards, rose-kissed lips pulled into a thoughtful frown. “I can leave, if you want.”

Anything, really, to get him to stop looking at her like that.

x - x

@Auru

[Auru]

He felt the distant sense of minor relief as the woman took several steps back. One could only wonder how she sensed his discomfort from his current posture and actions. She looked... confused.

Well, he supposed he would be confused too if he went to greet someone only to be met by someone who acted like a frightened predator backed into a corner. Fortunately for him, he'd never had to deal with that sort of situation. If he had, he probably would have just turned tail and ran. That was unfortunately because he was always the one acting like that, not anyone else.

His eyes were trained on her form, and so he saw each twitch of muscle fiber through her skin, saw the way she tried to make herself seem non-threatening. A distant part of his mind appreciated the consideration.

Her ears tipped forwards a little as he spoke, her head tilting as though she was the one confused, not him. Well, maybe they were both confused, then. He couldn't help that she startled him and he didn't catch what she said. And he supposed that his violent reaction was enough to confuse anyone.

It certainly wasn't normal, in any case.

"Sorry,"

That... was not what he expected to hear.

He had been expecting her to question him more, to press for the information she had wanted. He hadn't expected an apology.

What did she need to apologize for? He was the mess here.

"I didn't mean to scare you."

...Oh. He felt the frightened snarl slip off a little as he blinked in mild surprise.

He wasn't used to people apologizing for scaring him. He wasn't used to someone else taking the blame for his problems. He was more used to them just pressing on without a care.

It was... new.

It was... nice.

"I just... are you lost? Injured?"

He was far from lost, this was his home. As to injured...

His gaze momentarily flicked down to his hurt hoof, and he flexed it slightly, before he forced his vision back upwards, not wanting to give it away. Although if she was asking, then she must have already noticed.

Fan-tastic.

"I can leave if you want."

That was also new. He was used to people coming up and deciding to insert themselves into his space and life, not giving an opening to get away from it. He wasn't used to someone recognizing that maybe, just maybe, he didn't want company.

But... he had confused her too, and he knew his reactions were so nonsensical in their over-dramatized manner. She at least deserved something of an answer, for being considerate.

"I... I live... here."

He glanced around with the word 'here', indicating the swamp as a whole with his eyes. He didn't mention anything about his hoof, or answer her final question, not really sure how to respond to being asked if he wanted someone to leave. Instinctually he wanted to scream 'yes!', but she was the first person to ever ask him that, and so a part of him wanted to answer 'no'.

He just didn't know what to say, so he didn't say anything.

"I was just... walking."

He hadn't really been doing anything, so he tried to answer as honestly as he could. Because hey, he had been.

@Israfel