[open] Night Must End

[Knaught]

Knaught strolls along the river bank, watching the sun set over the horizon. Being nearly two years old, his black and purple apply spots have become more pronounced. While he still feels like a young colt, he has realized he needs to start to figure out where he stands in the herd. 

The plague has come and gone. For the first time in a long time, he feels peace. Serenity, almost. As he walks along the river bank, he stops and looks at his reflection staring back at him.  He sighs deeply and shakes his neck with r. his long, knotted, black mane shaking against his neck. He sometimes wishes he can hide under his mother’s tail like used to be able to. It always felt safe. He reminds himself that the days of fearing for his life are over.

[Leilan]

We got older and I should have known
that I’d feel colder when I walk alone

Safety is only a feeling; and although Hyaline was probably safer with the ice-drake in their midst, if they don’t know him or his personality, they probably won’t feel that way when they first see him. The scaled roan thus decides that, even now that it is summer, he should walk down to the lake every now and then. It’s better to be known and know them, before they are threatened after all.

And the lake itself is cool enough in summer for him - this morning, he’d walked the slope, frozen a few patches of the lake water, and still the shiny male stands in the shallower part of the water - feeding on fish every now and then.

His hawk-eye vision spots a young male (barely broadened out in the shoulders, but not a yearling; probably 2, 3 at most) when the appaloosa-marked boy makes a curve along the river that fills the lake (and flows out on the southern side to become the river that separates forest from meadow). Leilan looks at this picture for a while, then decides he can leave the water and join the kid in his meandering. ”What’s with the long face, hmm?” (Of course he noticed that the young male has a lot of Arabian lineage, but that doesn’t stop his chosen vocabulary.)

Leilan

no. 7 | ice forged in fire

@[Knaught]

[Knaught]

Knaught turns around to see the roan looking at him. “Huh?” He mumbles, being in a daze. He wishes his tail and flicks his ears as he gets back into reality. “Oh, hey,” he smiles softly. “I’ve just been thinking,” he admits. “How have you been?” He asks.

@Leilan

[Leilan]

We got older and I should have known
that I’d feel colder when I walk alone

The roan expects a lot of different greetings in life - or rather, knows not to expect anything - but the sleepiness of the young man before him, as indicated by his “huh?” makes him tilt his head at any rate. This makes the scaled stallion out a tssk and shake his head. “You know thinking like that, can get you killed one day, hmm? Be careful. How would you know I’m not here to eat you?” he grins a pointy-toothed grin at the youngster, as if indeed he is still debating it.

Nevertheless, he isn’t all bad (he thinks of himself), so he shrugs. “Oh I’m fine, but… Step one is, get to know who we are I think? So. I’m Leilan, and what about you?” he wants to know - assessing the youngster’s physique in the process. He might need to have some basic defense lessons, whatever his chosen profession would be or, become, as per the ice dragon’s opinion.

Leilan

no. 7 | ice forged in fire

@[Knaught] forgot to tag you, sorry

[Knaught]

“I love your scales,” he says, while looking the stallion over. “Where are you from?” He asks again, his curiosity getting the best of him. “Thanks for not eating me,” he smirks as he swishes his tail. Knaught doesn’t quite know how to interact properly with other horses. He prances around like he did in his young colt days. “I’m Knaught!” He says between prances as his tail swishes around for balance.

@[Leilan]

[Leilan]

We got older and I should have known
that I’d feel colder when I walk alone

The scaled stallion looks the youngster over with a calculating gaze - what of his scales, hmm? He doesn’t mind the remark - hah, if there’s anything about his bodily changes of the past is that others seem to enjoy it’s eye candy - and he their attention. He just didn’t expect it from a young colt, who in Leilan’s opinion was of the age to start building some muscle and show off to other his age (girl probably, but if it were boys he wasn’t one to judge). ”The Jungle. More presently, up there,” he says with an indicative nod to the mountain tops. ”You didn’t notice, did you.” It’s not a question but a statement, followed by a grin.

”Well Knaught, as for not getting eaten, I’m going to have to see to it that it stays that way, I think. Have you any interest in learning how to defend yourself?” he wishes to know. Any basic lesson could safe a traveller’s life, and it wasn’t all just basic horses out there. Unless the boy would rather stay here, and shy away from the world. That meant he only needed to be able to defend himself from intruders, challengers, and kidnappers.

Still, if he’d rather Leilan just watched them all the time, then the dragon-eyed male could do that. It was just more boring than teaching Hyaline’s inhabitants a basic defense, really.

Leilan

no. 7 | ice forged in fire

@[Knaught]