my shadow tilts it's head at me - any

[demian]

It was the silence that had driven the jaguar stallion crazy when he had first come out of his little hide-y hole to try and revive the valley and bring it a set of new leaders. And it was the silence that drove him out of it again. Whenever a place became too quiet it drove him crazy. The need for noise became almost desperate and the desire to escape it was extreme. Stepping out of the shadows of the Cave he had been hiding out in, he took a deep breath before turning his head towards the sound of rushing water. With heavy yet quiet steps the jaguar spotted stallion stepped carefully around the trees following the sounds of the river as they led him towards the borders of the dark kingdom.

For the last few weeks Demian had been having to get used to the fact that he would no longer be able to see. That the flames had entirely left him and would not be able to provide any sort of assistance. It had been excruciatingly painful, the way the flames had been stripped from his body with the falling of the wall. He had watched as the cosmic flames seeped into the ground, flowing back towards the center of the valley until the last bit of it flowed from his eyes causing a painful force to smack him in the chest and knock him to ground. The gift his rulership had brought him had been torn away from him by the valley and with it went his sight and in return there was a lingering sadness. Something inside of him that missed the warmth the fire brought to his inner core and it had taken the last few weeks for him to bury that feeling.

As he walked along the riverside the call of the Ravens darting through the trees sounded almost lazy as though they too were bored with the lack of activity among the trees. It seemed like he walked forever until he heard the shuffling of hooves among the fallen leaves and with a soft snort he came to a stop, his head tilting in the direction of the hoof beats. Nostrils flaring slightly he took a deep breath searching for scents carried by the wind that he may recognize. It took a few seconds but then it hit him. Rhonan. With a soft smirk, he finds himself turning towards the younger boy searching among the trees for him.

"Ronan," his voice is quiet as it rumbles softly between his lips. Had Demian still been able to see, had he not sacrificed his eyes for the wall, he would of noticed the snakes slithering silently towards him and then around his hooves but instead he continues to walk on, the darkness a permanence in his life in his own way, yet still much more different than the way it was permanent in golden boys. It took a bit of wandering but soon the older stallion was able to sense him and coming to a stop, he let his hooves shuffle in the leaves slightly in order to alert the boy he was close. "I should have figured you would be one to stick around even when most of us had disappeared." A smirk tilts at his graying lips as he tilts his head slightly. "Are you bored, Rhonan? Because I know I am." Rolling his shoulders slightly he shuffles his wings before speaking once more. "How about we change that."