e n c a n t a d o r
Encantador is frozen, reclined on the ground with his striped legs tucked beneath him. He intently watches the thing that’s tucked away in the shrubs just six feet away, though like he it doesn’t move a muscle. Its eyes are the color of the sand, its pupils mere slits; its body is a pale beige with patches of brown-grey, and on the ridges over its eyes there are horrid little tooth-shaped spikes. Like a devil. It watches him, and he watches it, too terrified to move.
It’s only when he can hear voices that he knows he must do something. But what? To buy himself some time, he attempts to lift himself to his feet as smoothly and slowly as he can without taking his eyes off the snake. Thankfully, it does not react. The stallion stares at it a few more moments, poised to fight or flee. But in the end, he cannot bring himself to kill it. It made no move to hurt me, so why should I hurt it? Instead he turns and glides away across the sands to join the strangers he had heard moments before.
He relaxes the further away from the creature he travels, and by the time he has reached the chestnut mare and the little sabino foal, he is nothing but confidence and smiles. Their coats are bone dry but for the gleam of sweat, so he reasons they have not swum their way here, which means only one thing. “Afternoon,” he greets them, and bobs his head pleasantly. “Encantador at your service. Which neighbors might you be?”
six-year-old stallion of the desert; son of el barroco and writhe
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