05-14-2017, 06:40 PM
He was relieved when she stepped toward him, and was aware of a knot of tension in his shoulders unwinding a little. His body still emanated heat; vital, still young and hale as he was, his body rose easily to the challenge of a winter evening. On the other hand, the sweat quickly freezing on his skin made him feel unnaturally cold this evening. He didn’t mind the chill, himself. He had been accustomed to cold, bitter salty air in the past and had spent far too long of late on scorching desert hellscapes. The change and the bracing air were welcome, as, was Naira’s gentle if melancholy presence.
Conventionally, horses were social animals. They congregated, established hierarchies, compromised and lived alongside each other because the alternative was solitude, and uncertain survival. Seirath had travelled widely. Very widely. He had rarely met members of his species who were comfortable being homeless. Home, in their coding, meaning herd, family, and allies – and occasionally physical places. He didn’t need the brave smile or the slightly over-bright tone of Naira’s voice to know that it pained her in some way to declare this homelessness to him. Her reticence to admit it, so eloquently overcome in her delivery and her steady gaze in his, was not lost on him. Ironically, this admission wins only favorable judgement from the bay stallion. Seirath mistrusted everyone, generally, and mistrusted them more when they were all together than when they were on their own. The honesty was refreshing, and reassured him yet further in her company. He was predisposed by the circumstances to find common ground with the lovely, pale gold stranger but he was finding this common ground more accessible than he would have imagined.
For all his practice of solitary living that inborn social understanding still drove him to shift his weight slightly, sidle in and turn his body slightly to shield the slighter frame against that sudden draft. The snow began to brighten on the ground around them, picking up and amplifying the faint starlight far overhead, phosphorescent and ephemeral.
His own smile stretched a little more earnestly into his face, subconscious instinct to put her at ease meeting the conscious eloquence of his lips and eyes. There was a shared understanding in his eyes that would have made it almost redundant for him to say me too. He glanced from her into the surrounding darkness, eyebrows briefly raised in wary appraisal. The stormy gray of his irises gathering the light reflected from her fair skin, and thrown thriftily from the emerging starlight as they slid easily back into hers. “Is this a dangerous place?” He had a sincere interest in the answer – the little golden filly was alone somewhere out here, in this strange country – but in Naira’s presence found it hard to believe in a terrible threat.
“I would be happy to walk with you, to wherever it is you have in mind. I,” he paused. His eyes escaped from hers again - the unconcealed truth of the next words unusual for him, and uncomfortable on his tongue. “would be grateful for the company. I’ve got a bit of a missing person situation, and I think it will be hard to sleep out here on my own.”
Seirath - maharion
OOC: ugh. I was hoping this would turn out better, but I didn't want you to wait too long!