I am the steel no enemy can shatter.
With the weight of every new discovery clinging so heavily to him, it takes him a moment to realize that he is standing in a foot of snow. Snow. He had been taken in the dead of winter. Surely he has not lost too much time then. This offers some small measure of solace to the scarred stallion, even if it is false comfort.
Time, unfortunately, has not been so kind. On top of everything else done to him in that wretched otherworld, he has lost nearly a year of his life.
The crunch of snow alerts him to the presence of another, causing him to stiffen. His scaled head comes up, brown gaze turning flat and a hard as he widens his stance so as to better defend himself. But instead of an enemy (those fairies, with their magic and deadly skill, have scarred him more than he would ever care to admit), a rather innocuous looking buckskin mare with silvery tresses appears .
Of course, one should never judge another based upon appearance alone. Certainly creatures an eighth of his size had caused him more than sufficient damage. Indeed, he is quite certain he had nearly died in that queer place. Several times.
But she is bright and chipper, her voice kind and open. Everything that he is not. For a moment, he wonders how she might have fared in that place. He is glad then that it had been he taken, and not an innocent. Not someone like this happy mare.
She would have all the joy he could not, and he would give it to her gladly.
It takes a moment for him to register that she had asked him a question, leaving the air still and quiet for what is no doubt an uncomfortable amount of time. ”Shannisoran,” he finally responds. ”Shan, if you like.”
Glancing around him, he cannot help the chill that races down his spine, one that has nothing to do with the cold. He is fairly certain that whatever magic it is that had deposited him here is gone, but he cannot remain. There is simply too much raw, terrible energy in this place.
”Will you walk with me?” he continues, gaze shifting back to Odesza as he starts forward. Anything to get her (to get himself) away from this place.
Shannisoran