this isn't neverland; halchon

[praise]

Her heart began to calm itself;

Only because she felt stagnant upon the path. Less and less of the sunlight found her pale apricot flesh, and both the forest and the shadows in it seemed to touch first her slim haunch, then her narrow back, and finally her slender throat where her pulse leapt one last time like a frightened fish. She sucked in a deep pungent breath of moss and mouldering earth and this calmed her further, at least into thinking that the forest wasn’t all that bad. Couldn’t be all that bad, as she heard the squeaks and chirps of squirrels and birds, and places that had squirrels and birds in them were not evil, right?

 

Praise narrowed her eyes, sensing that time had abandoned her as much as the sun had. That must mean night had come for the squirrels raced through the branches overhead then disappeared. Most of the birds flapped their feathers and hunkered down for the night in branch-nests and bark-nooks, trilling their last few notes to a dusk she never saw but felt like an hour wrenched savagely from her gut. She harrumphed and stomped her feet on the path in a small tantrum. It was for show, though who was there to see it but those that crept through the growing dark? She told herself it was for show but it was for her to ease out more frustration at having gotten lost, thinking that this would not have happened to Prevail.

 

There was a noise on the trail up ahead of her and she swung her narrow head towards it, unable to mask the expectant glimmer of hope on her face. A stallion! No, she perceived him to be no threat and she did not realize how stupid of her that just might be, but she was too glad to recognize the scent and shape of another of her own kind - horse, plain and simple as that, and she let loose a throaty whicker of relief. “Thank whatever!” she muttered, believing in no god but good simple earth underfoot and the broken spine of a raccoon nearby - those things she believed in, because she could see and smell and touch them, but the things that relied on blind faith, she lacked.

 

He sure made an awful lot of noise though…

Praise almost thought to shush him in his approach lest he attract those things that think of horses like them as delectable meals and she had no desire to become that broken bleeding thing that something else feeds on. However… she looked him over, from his nonchalance to his odd spots and it was his spots that she couldn’t stop staring at instead of his handsome face. Something looked to be not quite right with them and Praise felt her nose itching to touch but she kept her chin tucked almost to her breast giving him an impertinent look before barking, “Of course I’m lost!”

Her face almost softened as his croaking sounded rather froggy and she might have pitied him for a moment. “I’m sorry, it’s dark and I’m lost and I don’t quite think I like it out here.” Praise sighed and sidled closer to him, more for the sake of having another horse near her rather than warmth or attraction or any of that. He seemed able-bodied and built of muscle even if that muscle had seen little use, she couldn’t tell and didn’t dare ask if he knew how to defend them because her mind surged to what - wolves or monsters?

 

She knew they were all the same, terrible and true to their beastly natures and he - he seemed like a decent enough fellow. Sighing again, she offers him a wry smile and her name, “I’m Praise.” and just like that, she trusted too easily enough.

ooc: no worries! i like him and i'm in the same boat with praise lol, still figuring her out.