The white mare appeared suddenly, wasting no time once Fell had made it clear he would climb no further. This was surprising, somehow, but truly the black stallion was not sure what he had expected. He watched her descend to address him, feeling as though Charybdis were in her natural habitat, and Fell were the invader. This was confounding and infuriating to him, but those emotions were dwarfed by an enormous curiosity. By nature, yes, Fell was offended at being tracked into his own home and addressed like an inferior (or at least, this was how he perceived the situation, his beast within roaring and frothing at the insult). Beneath the all-too-familiar anger, however, the Marwari stallion was trying harder to entertain his curiosity. Fury had rarely gotten him anywhere, and while there was only so much he could do to temper the impulses to which he felt a slave, he could try to give energy to his other motivations.

This mare of the Ridge had throttled him with such exquisite violence that, in fact, it was almost easy to ignore the anger. The anger seemed to fuel his curiosity rather than drown it out. His hooked ears twisted back with apprehension as she approached, her movements slow and deliberate, her own body language screaming out a tense curiosity as if to mirror his own.

“What are you?”

Her voice rattled like reeds, hoarse and taught and emotional. Fell might have twitched his ears in irritation (he had gone through this introduction far more times than he cared for) but he still could not rightfully blame the Ridge queen for not knowing. In any case, the question was odd enough that confusion replaced irritation as he considered her. What am I? His head cocked curiously to the side, and his ears flipped forward, curled points meeting over his thick forelock.

Fell did not know how to answer her. The interaction as a whole was so vastly different from any other that he had experienced so far. He obviously couldn’t verbalize his answer, but he had vocalized in the past to demonstrate the inability to form words. He did so now, his mouth opening and his lips forming the single syllable of his name, but all that came out was a mournful, quiet cry, unrecognizable as any kind of word. Then he fell quiet, his ears flipping back defensively, gold eyes wary and cool from behind the messy curtain of forelock.

FELL

stallion. 16hh. black. marwari x. Rougaru x visurix.