Common

The meadow was a glittering, swaying sea after the storm, droplets sparking like embers off every blade of grass in the sunlight, and Herald, equally diamond-crusted with rain, was enjoying a quiet walk through the refreshed air, still perfumed with heady amounts of ozone. In the distance, he could smell the sea, and further in was the aroma of other horses- something he was gathering himself to wade into. Eventually. Right now, he was enjoying the rustling silence. Nature liked him. People were a toss-up, and sometimes even when they did like him there was a complicated unpleasantness to it. He never had to guess with the weather.

He drew another long breath of the memory of electricity in the air, and this time under the ozone was a faint-but-familiar smell with its own tang. Metallic. Blood. (Speaking of unpleasant.) With a twitch, he started to turn away- stopped, stood awkwardly for a long moment, then twisted back with a hushed sigh and made himself move briskly in the direction of the scrabbling smell of copper scraping at the insides of his nose and making the back of his mouth taste funny.

When he spied the source, he stopped again, hesitating. Not too late to turn back and pretend you never noticed, encouraged a little whisper in the back of his mind- but it was, and he had a little moment of shame for having considered it. The embarrassment coloured his posture as he approached the figure, bowing his metallic head a little, though he tried to summon up his most charming and diplomatic smile all the same. (It was not, in fact, as diplomatic as he liked to believe it was. Charming was in the eye of the beholder.)

The stallion he approached was- well, not all that approachable, frankly. Certainly not ugly (though his bedraggled, beaten state was likely not his best look), but his curvy bronzed body was cocked with a strange, standoffish energy that made Herald feel a little small in comparison, despite that he stood a little over him. His white face looked eerily like a mask below his dark eyes- something porcelain and pretty and not-quite-right, and Herald tensed and tried not to swallow audibly at how still and expressionless it was- oh, but there was a little cut on the powdered pink of his lip, and it was just deep enough to break the illusion. Making himself straighten a little to hide the guilt of staring at this man’s wounds in relief, he shook his damp copper curls back and performatively widened his smile (he wasn’t a skilled actor, and he had the sense it looked clumsy, but it was too late to turn back now). His shofar voice, likewise, was a confident act that was too riddled with organic ridges and textures to be true.

“Hello, I don’t mean to interrupt your- err.” ...What was he even interrupting? But he most certainly had the sense that he was. Awkwardly clearing his throat, he forged on in the hopes his new ‘friend’ ignored the pause- “but I wanted to make sure you were, umm, not...” His eyes trailed the length of the bronze stallion’s proud body, hesitating over wounds that he barely seemed bothered by, and felt the embarrassment flushing his golden face with heat. “...Badly hurt? -Or in need of help,” he added quickly, brightening a little at that train of thought. Right, he’d come to help, and he puffed out his gleaming chest a little, trying to look reliable and friendly and not like he was regretting initiating this disaster.