Genus: Equus
As it so happened, Alarik had a nasty habit of straying too far from his family, especially when his siblings decided they wanted to nap in the warmth of the early summer afternoon. Alarik just wasn't the napping type. He loved to sleep if it meant dreaming, but his naps rarely held dreams. They were just black and boring, and left him feeling drowsy for hours afterward. So what was the point? He padded away, back into the orchard he had grown so used to playing in. It was an excellent place to play pretend, because it looked like a magical forest. It smelled pretty magical too, with the apple blossoms slowly dying away and being replaced by green mini apples. Alarik looked at these with curiosity, wishing he could see them closer. They were so little!
But eventually he gave up on the mini apples and started romping further into the collection of fruit bearing trees, slowly formulating a play pretend scenario in his mind. Should he fight an ogre today? No, he and his brother had done that yesterday. He hadn't climbed any treacherous mountains lately, maybe he could do that. Maybe the princess would be trapped at the top of that mountain. By villainous pirates!
Alarik laughed a bit as he kept romping about, working out the details in his head as he and his band of knights began their climb. But then he saw something not at all pretend, and it stopped him in his tracks. Right there in front of him, barely twenty feet away, was... well, what was it? It looked sort of like a deer, but a bit shorter and stockier. And it was jet black. The little boy stared with widening eyes. Whatever the creature was, it was beautiful. He tiptoed closer, trying to be sneaky but naturally failing thanks to his clumsy puppy paws. Eventually he ducked behind a tree, hiding everything but his head from view as he observed the creature. He wanted to say something to it, just to see if he would be understood. Maybe he could say something really cool and brave. Like what? "Hello?" He called out, stepping out from behind the tree a bit. Okay, so that wasn't exactly cool or brave. But it was a start. "Talk" "You" Think |
