the path to enlightenment
A R I S H O K
is paved with ignorance
A nod of understanding is his singular response to selah at her confession; though he offers no words, Arishok's stern demeanor softens noticeably as he watches the subtle play of emotions across her face. He feels a pull to this basran female that is not unlike the calling of tal-sunnah; as if she defines a part of him. It is an unfamiliar sensation, but not an altogether unpleasant one - closing his eyes, Arishok basks in the reassuring warmth of her presence. Perhaps this was what it was to be kadan.
He had never known what it was like to share a kinship with another; in his homeland there had always been a rift, an unbridgeable distance that seemed, now, to have foreshadowed the inevitable physical distance of his future. There had been a time when he had looked upon the brotherhood of ba'shok with envy, but as he had grown and come to understand the bond that came of bloodshed, he had turned his back on them. Perhaps this was why he was destined to live both among and apart from the ashqaad; though he valued strength of body, Arishok differed from many of his tribe in that he felt it should be used solely to defend their own, and that the ashqaad should be converted - not conquered.
Arishok is grateful to be drawn from the depths of his musings by her question; purpose might be defined by the past, but it is only found in the present. Blinking his eyes open to study her expression, the stallion is silent for a moment, wondering just how important the answer is to her before he responds.
"I do not have a name."
He states simply, his gaze drifting from the familiar contours of her body to the heavens above them. It was a concept that he expected selah would have some difficulty understanding - the ashqaad were defined by their individual identities, while the talsaad were defined by their purpose in life, and by how they contributed to the whole.
"You may call me Arishok. Such is my title, and my purpose."
a bloodstained gray stallion
standing proud at 16.2 hands and
following the ways of his warlander ancestors
for nine years and counting
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