The young stallion moved more like a panther. His gait was smooth and rolling, head carried forward as he listened to all he passed by. Small mammals and lizards rustling in the undergrowth. Birds flitting from branch to branch as the muscular horse padded beneath. The river flowing musically some meters to his left. It all formed a picture of the surroundings, and what he could expect on his day away from home.
The long tangles of deep purple forelock obscured his vision some, until he threw them away from his face in a sudden swing of his head. There was nothing altered about him today. No grass patterned coat or heathered mane and tail to blend him into the background. Just himself, mottled purples and browns and as common as the day he was born.
For all his mannerisms, Mikael had long since come to terms with the fact that it was his mother he took after most. Quick witted, sarcastic. And thoroughly ordinary. He smiled to himself as he pushed through a blackberry thicket, hissing under his breath as thorns snagged on his skin. He'd have to tell Keeper about the berries that he was sure had filled these branches over the summer.
If he ever got out of here, that was. With a grunt, the burly male pulled away as hard as he could, ripping stems from the ground and snarling them further into his mane and tail. He cursed, louder than before, and pulled again. Really, this briar hadn't looked so dense from the outside, but now he was struggling to extract himself from it.
With a bunching of muscles, he jumped forward as well as he could. Hopefully there was nothing worse where he landed. "ARGGG!" His holler rang through the riverland as the twisting thicket at last let him go. Fragments of blackberry vines remained in his hair, and blood oozed from a dozen places where thorns had raked him, but he was free.
His head shook and he sneezed several times, before lifting his head to realize that his ordeal had perhaps not been a private one.
@[catnip]
The long tangles of deep purple forelock obscured his vision some, until he threw them away from his face in a sudden swing of his head. There was nothing altered about him today. No grass patterned coat or heathered mane and tail to blend him into the background. Just himself, mottled purples and browns and as common as the day he was born.
For all his mannerisms, Mikael had long since come to terms with the fact that it was his mother he took after most. Quick witted, sarcastic. And thoroughly ordinary. He smiled to himself as he pushed through a blackberry thicket, hissing under his breath as thorns snagged on his skin. He'd have to tell Keeper about the berries that he was sure had filled these branches over the summer.
If he ever got out of here, that was. With a grunt, the burly male pulled away as hard as he could, ripping stems from the ground and snarling them further into his mane and tail. He cursed, louder than before, and pulled again. Really, this briar hadn't looked so dense from the outside, but now he was struggling to extract himself from it.
With a bunching of muscles, he jumped forward as well as he could. Hopefully there was nothing worse where he landed. "ARGGG!" His holler rang through the riverland as the twisting thicket at last let him go. Fragments of blackberry vines remained in his hair, and blood oozed from a dozen places where thorns had raked him, but he was free.
His head shook and he sneezed several times, before lifting his head to realize that his ordeal had perhaps not been a private one.
@[catnip]