Hawke

x^aisy/ six / grullo tobiano / mixed breed / 15.3hh

If there was ever a place that the heavens and earth could meet, it was the mountain to which Bacardi had led hir.

The glimpses Hawke had stolen during their trek did no justice to the grandeur of the Vulcan's home. Lingering now at its base, the Peak filled the entirety of the grullo's vision, even when shi compensated for the sightlessness of the half-lidded eye on hir right side. It was a breathtaking sight, but also overwhelming - as Hawke's golden eye followed the mountain upward, fear wrapped cold fingers around hir lungs in a vice-like grip. To venture up the slope would be to abandon all that was familiar; the solace of hir solitude and the simple life that shi had led thus far. The stability of level ground beneath hir hooves and the knowledge that one day was unlikely to be terribly different from the last - or the next.

Without Bacardi's supportive prescence beside hir, the androgynous creature had been unable to muster the courage to take those final steps towards a new existence. Shortly after their arrival on the Vulcan borders, a distant call had shattered the comfortable silence that had settled over the unlikely pair. Offering a hasty apology, the bay tobiano had explained that he was being summoned, and had scrabbled up the slope before Hawke, as agile and surefooted as a mountain goat. There had been no indication that his mouse-colored companion was prohibited from following, but shi had remained here since, warring against the desire to turn around and slink back to the meadow.

How much could he have valued hir company, after all, if shi had been left behind so readily?

The scuffing tread of hooves on stone had gone unnoticed in the turmoil of Hawke's thoughts, such that the young stallion's sudden call sent hir heart racing. Twisting hastily around to face the source of the sound, the grullo's ears flattened uncertainly. Though Bacardi had assured hir that a small number of stallions called the Peak their home - as captives and companions, partners and progeny - the scents that clung to this stranger's coat were predominantly male.

What was a bachelor from the Lagoon doing here? A vague sense of disquiet began to fill Hawke's heart - something momentous was happening, and shi was certain that shi wanted no part in it. War spared no-one, and shi had suffered more than enough loss in hir life already. But now, with the mountain before hir and the stallion behind, there was nowhere to run; nowhere that Hawke could hope to flee.

And so shi stood hir ground, prepared to defend a home that was not even hirs to claim.

*hir and shi are gender-neutral pronouns