dancing in the dark; any

[sequoia]

Sequoia has adopted a loose stride in her solitary walks that allows for her to concentrate on the daisies that spring up almost underfoot. They make her happy, even when they are something other than daisies pushing up from the dirt and her manipulation over them. It is this small trifling happiness that is most important to her because the season is sad and sick with the beginnings of sleep and decay. She knows that the season after this one will be even sadder for her - winter does not allow for much to grow or flourish. Winter might not allow it but she knows she could make it happen. Can bend and warp the laws of nature to her own superior will if she so chooses. Just as she knows this knowledge, she knows that she will not go against the natural laws of nature either. What is born must die in order to make room for new growth. It is a terribly sad cycle but she is familiar with it if only through her attempts to master her dominion over the plants.  It is because of this that she eventually heaves a sigh from the confines of her unsmiling mouth. Stops even in a fetlock-deep crush of daisies that nod lovingly against her legs as the rest of the natural world dies around the almost-mare and her unnatural flowers.  SEQUOIA to be, and be nothing but light in the dark

[Etojo]

He held the carcass close to his chest, carrying his meal into the deeper, denser part of the forest where he usually belonged. For a time, all seemed as it should in this part, where the only mark of a presence was that of his own amongst the dead leaf litter and barren soil. Until suddenly, he became aware that it wasn’t. For cutting through his well-trodden path of decay grew a trail of daisies, their freshly green stems a shocking reminder of all that was unnatural in this world. He had come this way earlier and they hadn’t existed then. The oddness of it made his leafy body bristle as his typical scowl once again moulded its presence to his face. His conclusion was both quick and simple. Someone else was in his area… when they shouldn’t be. His mind frothed with a strange mix of annoyance and excitement as he veered off his own path and onto the flower trail which had been left for him. The carcass still clasped between his jaws swung this way and that to the purposeful rhythm of his stride. Its little creature limbs dangling and slapping his chest. He wondered if the filaments of rotting flesh smeared against his chest would make him look fierce. He certainly hoped so. It did not take him long to find the daisy trails creator. Certainly, there have been times when his silliness would overrule common sense, but a trail is a trail, and whilst some did question it, Etojo wasn’t that stupid. She stood amongst her flowers, young and if he judged by appearance only, at least outwardly normal enough. The stir of excitement which had quickened his heart gradually began to slip away. It was a strange feeling to feel more disappointed than pleased. Had he really wanted to bully her off? Yes… yes he had. He had the roguish urge to get his hooves muddier than they already were. But watching her stand there amongst her daisies… Etojo cocked his head. She just seemed overly harmless. A long time had passed, so long that he’d lost track of how long it had been since he’d had visitors, even unwitting ones. Perhaps a different plan was in need here. And still clutching the carcass because at some point he’d need to eat it, Etojo moved to meet her. Her trail of daisies a trail no more as they withered away to an early death as he passed over them. One of the many sad effects to what he was now.

[sequoia]

She knew this forest well. Most parts of it that is. Like where the hickory tree grew beside which her two mothers often met and she had been born beneath. Or the green scummed pond her mother usually stared into, waiting for it to offer up something that Sequoia in her short life had yet to understand. But she suspected that there were parts of the forest that even she did not know about despite her two mothers’ teachings.  Some things are best left in the dark... To be discovered. No one owned the forest and the concept of territory was foreign to her as she idled amongst her unnaturally grown daisies. They weren’t even her favorite flower necessarily - just one that seemed cheery enough to accompany her this dreary autumn day. So it never occurred to her as she dropped her bay head amongst their pale sweetness, that she was a trespasser here. All she could smell besides the daisies and herself was the shuddering thickness of leaf fall and decay.  Once she raised her head back up, she had the queerest sensation of being watched - no, not so much watched as stalked, as if she had somehow become the sort of prey that realizes it is prey way too late to do anything about it. It didn’t help that the smell of decay had grown infinitely stronger and fresher which was indicative of a corpse. Her nostrils wrinkled in instinctive distaste and she nearly plunged her nose back into the daisies just to inhale something sweet and alive. The daisies stood forgotten at her feet as she turned at lady to meet the smell of autumn and rot head on - - For the longest time, it was the strangest stand off between two horses or one horse and an almost-horse. She wasn’t quite sure what she faced because it looked as if it was crafted of twigs and leaves. Plus it held some unfortunate creature in its mouth that oozed flesh and fluid down the front of what she presumed was once a more equine neck and chest. She tilted her own head to one side as a mix of fascination and revulsion sculpted expression after expression on her face.  It made the first move, distracting her as the carcass swayed in its mouth and her trail of daisies began to wither away. Sequoia almost wanted to make the assumption that it was male from the very forward way it moved but held back momentarily from thinking that if so, it’d mean her no harm. She’d been told about the opposite sex but only in how to utilize them to fit her needs and desires and Sequoia did not think much of herself in that regard yet - or at all. But with each dying daisy, she sank her power into the earth and pulled up a small but growing barrier of nettles to possibly slow the thing down if its intentions proved other than friendly.  Sequoia recognized her own dumb desire to give this unique beast the benefit of the doubt because it - him? - intrigued her. She thought she ought to have been more shocked that the bits of fleshy filament dangling from creature-corpse and mouth did not further repulse her than it initially had but it was the ability to negate her daisies and own inherent power that kept her rooted to the spot. Enough to even make her open her mouth and be the first to break the quiet between them, “Hello.” SEQUOIA to be, and be nothing but light in the dark

Ah so thrilled to be interacting with Etojo! Big fan of him! <3