Remiel, head hanging low, slowly picked his way forward. Raguel carefully clung to his bonded's back, saying nothing, knowing what had the gilded Soquili so dejected. Yet another group of Soquili they had encountered fled as soon as they had drawn near, fearful of the strange duo. Poor Remi couldn't understand what made them so afraid of him; was it his wings? His eyes? He'd done his best to keep them hidden, and yet...
"We've got company ahead, unless you wisssh to divert..?" Raguel hissed softly, breaking Remi out of his forlorn musings. Lifting his head, he saw in the distance a pale figure with dark accents and hesitated. Dare he venture forth, to ask for guidance, or not risk yet another misguided encounter where they would flee or he'd be driven off. He sighed. "I see just the one, so might as well risk it. At this point we're no strangers to the outcome." Carefully angling his head-wings to shield his face, he gracefully began to move toward where the ghostly Soquili was.
(( WC: 174 ))
The nameless ghostly stallion stood close to a small stream, the water burbling softly but only truly audible if you were to stand right next to it. His head was slightly tilted staring at the shattered reflection in the water. Himself. Maybe? Who was he?
He'd spent the last few months of his life after emerging from a lake far to the north, the icy waters spitting him out practically a newborn. He had no memories, no idea who he even was. The herd of Soquili who lived there could tell him nothing of himself. Just that he underwent a ritual to fix him. He'd queried more from them but they'd stubbornly refused his questions saying that they'd be instructed by who he was before to NEVER tell him who he was.
This had bothered the ghostly stallion greatly but he had undergone this ritual for a reason right? Right...?
He felt himself sighing as the water rushed onward to paths unknown to him. His own life was much the same. An unknown path but an unknown past and one that still kept plaguing him. Wherever he went screams of terror followed him. Mares hiding their foals, stallions trying to fight him to keep him away from their loved ones.
Who was he? What had he done? Why was he even here... Just to suffer?!
(( WC: 225 ))
Coming to a stop a respectable distance from the paler Soquili, Remiel shifted uneasily. He wanted to ask the other for help (of ANY sort) but he feared how they'd react upon seeing him. Raguel quickly took charge of the situation. "Excussse usss... Do you know where we are?" he asked, slithering down to wrap himself around his bonded's foreleg. The brisk wind reminded him that his perch he had vacated was shielded by the many wings adorning the ebony-colored Soquili. He was willing to tolerate the cold for a little longer, however, as the original perch might frighten the paler individual before them. A snake's face peering over an equine head would be certain to spark rumors, if it hadn't already.
Remiel's wings rustled gently as he did his best to tuck his wings in, which was not an easy task due to having several pairs of them. "Pardon the intrusion..." he said softly. He was trying his best to look harmless and wondered if he'd managed to finally figure out a way to do so based on past failures.
(( WC: 181 ))
The large ghostly stallion turned to face the pair standing before him and smiled a bit ruefully. "Greetings to you both, but I am unable to answer your questions for I don't know where we are either." He blinked balefully at the Snake then turned his attention to the many winged Soquili rustling nervously. "Dunno what's got you so nervous but I promise I don't bite." He smiled again, a very fangy grin at them. His teeth weren't as sharp as the Kalona mix who'd sired him, not that he knew that part of him either, but they still had a bit of a point to them. "What brings the pair of you so far out? This forest isn't exactly on the 'beaten path' so to speak."
(( WC: 126 ))
"We don't know... Trying to find "home", wherever that is." Remiel replied, peering through his head wings to get a better look at the stallion before them. His familiar, determining that the other wasn't going to flee or attack any time soon, returned to his perch draped across the broad back. "We've tried asking others, but they usually do not respond in a reasonable way." He repositioned his wings for Raguel to rest more comfortably, still ready to bolt at the first sign of hostility. He hadn't missed the dark look cast at the snake and it made him instinctively uneasy. The wind picked up, making him shiver and his adornments chimed softly at the motion. "May we seek shelter further in? The trees might shield the worst of the wind from us."
(( WC: 133 ))
Home... The very word sent a wistful but somehow cold wind through the ghostly stallion. He felt so lonely thinking of that word even if he didn't know where it was or if there was anyone there who'd know him. The real him. Not the him that sent others into fits of rage or terror. "Sounds oddly like the reactions I've been getting from others... A lonely path for you both to tread then. Home is a word that makes one think of comfort and happiness and to crave it but not know of it is... Difficult." Of course it was difficult. He knew it too, but how much could he safely reveal to this duo? Maybe this was his chance to "spill the beans" so to speak, to have someone who might understand and listen. The other didn't run or try to fight him so maybe...
He rolled his shoulders in what could be construed as a shrug for a Soquili. "There's some older pines further in with larger skirts that block more of the wind." He gestured with a large wing in the direction then stepped back and away so the others wouldn't feel threatened by him. The last thing he needed was a fight with this one. Eyeing the large talons on the feet he didn't think he'd survive a blow from those.
(( WC: 226 ))
Remiel saw the wing move and fixated on it, intrigued by its duality but too polite to inquire about it. "Then let us relocate our conversation there. Perhaps we can figure out some clue while we talk." Shifting his gaze so not to be seen as rude, he carefully picked his way past the stream, navigating around the scattered rocks on its shore. "It would be a lonely path if not for the company we share with each other."
Raguel peered over the ebony wings, watching the other stallion's movements. "Sssad how a sssimple querry sssends the masssess into a panic." he hissed. "Jussst the mere sssight of usss and any sssemblance of reassson goesss out of their sssilly little headsss."
(( WC: 121 ))
He noticed the attention upon his wing as he moved it but chose to forgo saying anything. "How true it is..." He watched as they moved past him and felt a twang of jealousy that he didn't have a familiar friend like this ones snake. A companion would be nice. Someone to confide in. He heard the snake hiss out a comment and frowned a bit. Had this stallion dealt with things much like his own? Undue fear and being antagonized for his looks alone? What a sad world it was if so many of us are similar...
After the other passed by he carefully followed until they were deeper in the woods, shielded from much of the cold wind that blew down off the mountains he'd come from. He made sure to keep a fair distance so he didn't make the other nervous.
When they'd finally come to a stop the ghostly stallion made a small nest of the forest debris and plunked himself down into it. He was giving the other stallion an advantage over him, a stranger too, but something told him the other wasn't dangerous and might even be an ear to listen to his woes.
Perhaps he could return the favor and listen too. It was the least he could do after all. He waited for the other to make himself comfortable giving him the floor to start.
(( WC: 233 ))
Remiel turned and was about to speak when he stared through the feathery blinds of his head wings and couldn't fathom what he saw. He stood still in stunned silence for long enough that his familiar had to take the lead. "We're not usssed to othersss relaxing in our presssence." Raguel said, giving Remiel a gentle nudge with his nose behind the ear. "Ah... right. Usually they flee, screaming. There was that one time though that an individual possessing an extremely weaponized tail tried to come after us. And I could've sworn they were able to command the very ground itself..." He sighed, closing his eyes and bracing himself. "Usually... not just because of my wings, but as soon as I'm close enough for others to see these..." Taking a deep breath, he withdrew the small wings hiding his face and slowly opened his eyes to look at the ghostly one before him. His face thus revealed, it showed the sadness he had been suffering from of late.
(( WC: 168 ))
He almost chuckled at the descriptions of what the duo had been through before there was a change in the air around them and the other stallion dropped the small head wings hiding his face. For a brief moment his instincts told him to run from what he saw but the ghostly stallion was made of more than that. He tamped down the feeling and willed it away, then blinked and looked up into the fathomless eyes. No whites, no discernible pupils, just void and shadow. This multiple winged stallion was showing him a very vulnerable part of himself and he'd be damned if he looked away or showed him fear. "I see..." He murmured slightly. "I see what you mean. I can see how some might fear such a sight but there's no malice there. No violence. Just sadness. Pain. Loneliness." He sighed. He was seeing everything that he too felt in the eyes of this stallion. It was unfair that the world made of us this way. Made us this way at all. It was not our fault to be born as we were. "It just makes me so tired... We can't change what the world made us. We can only live it." Philosophical the ghostly stallion wasn't but he tried his best...
(( WC: 215 ))
Sensing the ghostly stallion's inward battle, Remiel quickly hid his eyes once more. "My first memory is of when the sun hid itself from the world and caused a great panic. And then other Soquili saw me and assumed..." He sighed. Was it truly his sudden appearance that caused the sun to vanish? Was he a curse-bringer? He hung his head, weary from the paranoia of those he encountered on his aimless travels. "If not for the company of my companion on my back, I'm not sure how I would have survived this long with all the negativity thrown at me. How am I to blame for how I was born? I did not ask to have more wings than can be reasonably managed, nor for eyes that appear to contain nothingness." His voice began to crack and he turned his head away, talons digging into the soft earth. Raguel took over where his companion left off. "Sssuch unkind actionsss can either make the recipient resssentful and lasssh out, or they break under the weight of the unfairnesss of it all." he hissed softly. "If not for each other, I can only asssume we would have broken long ago."
(( WC: 199 ))
The ghostly stallion felt terrible for making the other hide his eyes so quickly but he felt the soft rant ringing within him. Broken long ago... Why did that word bother him so much.
He surged to his feet and started pacing back and forth for a moment before he let loose, "Broken. Broken. Broken... We're all technically broken if you think about it. Your eyes, my memories. If you think about it this world is entirely unfair and it never will be anything but. I'm sick of it. SICK of it! Just two broken stallions suffering whatever the world will throw at them for just being born." He hissed in breathes, between clenched teeth, attempting to calm himself down.
He didn't like this. Talking like this. It reminded him of something and scared him silly, this anger, this vehemence that rose up out of nowhere.
Standing still, his legs slightly shaking he didn't turn back to the other stallion just yet trying to calm himself down. His wings suddenly drooped and brushed the ground as if he didn't have the strength anymore to hold them in place.
"Apologies... I don't know what just came over me..." He knew he'd probably scared the other off and was likely only talking to an empty void behind him. He was that afraid to turn around, wondering now if the other might just be an illusion of his sick mind. The village had been so afraid of him after all when he emerged from the lake. Maybe he was just insane...
(( WC: 258 ))
The sudden surge to his hooves and the agitated pacing, followed by the flow of words full of negative emotion, made Remiel stagger back a bit. Had he, or his familiar, said or done something to upset the other stallion? But no... he hadn't fled or tried to attack, so it left the void-eyed stallion bewildered. "It seems we are two of a kind, then." He said gently, trying to soften his actions to soothe the ghostly one. "If the world is so against us, perhaps we should stick together while we travel and try to figure out clues to our pasts? I lack much of my memory as well, only able to get faint warm feelings when I sleep and hear a gentle voice calling out what I assume is my name. I am Remiel, and my serpentine companion is Raguel. Do you remember your name at least? If not... might I at least call you a friend?" Remiel hoped the other one would be friends with him; he sensed they both sorely needed it.
(( WC: 176 ))
(( TWC: 1152 ))
The ghostly stallion felt his breath leave him in one great whoosh when Remiel finally spoke back to him. He turned and looked at the other stallion, a pitiable look upon his face like that of a lost child being found and taken home. He very nearly started crying right on the spot, managing barely to hold it back, though his eyes were very watery. He spoke at last in a hushed whisper, "I was sure that I had imagined you both and was just talking to myself at this point... but I'd be so honored to walk this land besides you while we rediscover ourselves and hopefully shed some light into these blasted shadows." Carefully tucking his dragging wings up tight against his back again he smiled at last a genuine smile, one full of hope that maybe life might be looking up once again. "Lead the way... Friend?"
(( WC: 150 ))
(( TWC: 1433 ))
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