Carefully the gleaming filly picked her tender pale hooves over the thick lush growth of the Soulless Forest. Certainly in the damp and fog, golden seal, trillium and bleeding heart would be growing in abundance. Not to feast upon no, the young mare was aiming to preserve them. Perhaps present them to the new lead mare Asa in the hopes of currying her favor.
Nuri had barely been part of the herd when tragedy struck. The resulting drama that unfolded frightened her but she was determined to show them her worthiness to keep alive and near. She wasn't the type to fight a lion off, but she certainly wasn't afraid to aim a kick at anyone who didn't mind their own business. She had noticed the old stallion was rather ... doleful. Her own father would have kicked him into high gear himself. Her father had led a band against a small pride of lions that was preying on his foals. Sending a band of warriors after a wolf wasn't something so out of the ordinary for her. She had been confounded when the old stallion was so reticent to make things safe. She was glad his son had some sense to him at least.
Her pools of tropical blue waters scanned the undergrowth for the herbs she sought. Perhaps the new leaders had not noticed she had slipped away just after the slaughter. She was so new, they probably had forgotten she existed.
But who would forget such a shining creature? The only metallic hide in the herd? Just on the cusp of her next season too. A beauty to behold, a true diamond of the season.
The answers were in the bones. Ask the bones. Look to the bones. Well... Asa hadn't been able to have bones for a long time. Now she had a lovely collection. One from each of the stallions that she'd dispatched, one from the former herd leader, one from his lead mare, whom Asa had witnessed being murdered by a big cat later on. cough cough. And one from the cat itself. Different bones meant different things and so each set of rattlebones was unique to the beast that meant to read them. Asa had a little satchel around her neck that held the bones over her heart. All the better to learn one another.
The midnight mare, all shadows and dust, was always on alert, her fiery gaze seeing everything, the gears within her mind turning as she filed all of her observations away. She had noted that Nuri, the pretty, golden mare, was staying further from the group than she had been prior. Asa loved pretty things and she found Nuri to be quite easy on the eyes. That wasn't to say that she was a lesbian, you dirty reader. She simply liked to look.
The sunlight glinted off of the golden mare, catching Asa's attention. The antlered woman gave her obsidian mane a shake, releasing a friendly nicker as she drew in close. "Plants for healing or just to look pretty?" One brow arched in question. Pretty only got you so far in life. Was the girl trying to be useful?
Nuri flicked her bright tail in the dimness of the cloistered forest. She was a beacon in the darkened woods. Her metallic coat caught the glints of sunbeams and scattering the sunshine among the shadows. She nosed around the roots of a towering thick vine-choked tree, eager to find the tell-tale frog-footed leaves of the bleeding heart plant. When her head pulled back at the sound of a rustling of a mane and a friendly nicker.
The shadows coalesced into the form of the fog and midnight mare Asa, her crown of antlers adorning her and her wild eyes of fire opals observing Nuri.
"Asa!" She startled and stepped back. No! She must show courage, a bold heart! She stepped back into the place she started from, her heart thrumming against her ribs as the dark mare nearly towered over the filly.
"Yes! Healing. I can find... Some useful herbs. I was hoping to..." She was being too soft, too cautious too weak. She lifted her young noble head, pushing her fears of being caught so far from the herd aside. "I can be more than just a pretty face, Asa. I can kick and I can use herbs to heal!" She leaned forward, oh no was she being too bold now? She tried her best to hold the shadowed mare's firey gaze but her sapphire eyes couldn't bear the intensity and she looked down at the satchel of bones around the woman's neck. Praying that she won't one day be one of them. She knew some bleeding heart should be around here somewhere! She just had to find it! It can't be that elusive.
Ah, the girl was so frightened. So scared. Vibrant blue yes shot wide as she realized that Asa was standing there and the feeling of power was a delicious thing. Dark nares flared as though the antlered woman could smell that fear on the wind. She did love pretty things, but pretty things in a state of fear? That was an entirely different taste all together.
Recognizing that she was showing fear, Nuri tried to steel herself. This was almost as amusing as the fear. The young mare stared hard into fire opal eyes and eventually was forced to look away. Asa was a pro at uncomfortable eye contact, but she hadn't even been trying this time. The girl was just so unsure of herself.
Nuri's words met dark, pointed ears and the speckled mare chuckled softly. "I have no doubt that you can kick." All horses could kick. That didn't make anyone special. What did catch Asa's interest was the fact that Nuri was looking for healing herbs. Healers were important. They were valuable. "If you fancy yourself a healer, I can arrange for lessons." Asa took a step forward towards the luminescent lady. "A herd of fighters always needs a healer. You would be valuable, useful."
Taking another step forward and to the side, Asa slid her dark, silken side against the glimmering side of Nuri; a gentle brushing of shoulders and hips. She circled the girl slowly before coming to stand beside her rather than before her. "You could be my own personal healer," Asa suggested. There were many in the herd that would want a piece of the golden mare. Asa knew that taking her on as an underling would provide the girl with a modicum of safety. Did Nuri know that, however?
