Nyx had been right about the journey. It had been silent and long. After she had given the stallion her name she fell silent as well, instead listening to him in a different way. She still was unsure if he could not speak or understand speech or if he just chose not to. Either way, he wasn’t going to speak to her, that much she was beginning to figure out. And so, she kept going silently, following his directions that he gave with his teeth. He never did bite her again, she had tried to maintain a safe distance from him, but it seemed that even if she hadn’t, his anger towards her had lessened slightly.
The most unpleasant part of the journey had been the water that she was sent into. Sure, the swim was not as long as it could have been, but the mare had never really been a fan of the water, especially oceans. It was too unpredictable. One minute it could be calm and clear, inviting to all to beat the heat of summer in its cooling waves. But the next minute it could be dark and grey and unforgiving, ready to take everything down to its depths. Nyx liked consistency, either good or bad. Chomps, he was consistent. Consistently angry and aggressive, but consistent nonetheless. Well, at least so far he appeared to be.
As Nyx moved towards the dark forest as the stallion motioned her to do, and she smiled. For a moment she had been worried that she was going to a place that would have no chance of hiding from the sunlight. Breathing a sigh of relief, she pricked her ears forward, feeling no need to keep an eye on the stallion. She glanced behind her just to make sure, when she realized, although he was still apparently angry, it was not directed at her, it seemed more he was lost in thought. Nyx glanced away and instead looked about her surroundings to get a feel for the place. Yes, this would be a good home. It would be dark any time of day, with shadows of the trees blanketing the forest floor. She could hide and stalk through the woods, and use the darkness to her advantage. Perfect.
The stallion moved up to walk alongside the mare, his ears finally coming out of their apparent fixed position and they halted near the end of the grove. Surrounded by the forest and the night, Nyx relaxed. She knew dawn would come soon and the sun would be up in the sky, brining light to everything, but she hoped that she and the stallion would be in the woods by then, him doing whatever stallions did, and her, finding new places to hide from the sunlight.
She turned towards the stallion, ears pricked at him. She opened her mouth to speak but remembered that he was more of the strong and silent type. Instead she glanced around before turning back to him and smiling, dipping her head low and pawing gently at the ground with her hoof. Trying to show her feelings towards the land by body language, something she wasn’t used to. She moved away from Chomps slightly after, making sure she was still within his eye sight, she was tired after her first journey to the common ground and then almost immediately after she was dragged here. She moved alongside one of the larger trees that grew on the outline of the grove and rubbed her side against it gently, closing her eyes as the hard bark brought her relief from her itching skin. It always got that way when she was growing tired, and she almost found herself nodding off. Shaking her head to keep herself awake, she trotted back to the stallion, stopped in front of him and eyed him carefully.
He seemed to be content, and so Nyx, knowing she couldn’t live in fear her entire life from this stallion, walked closer to him. She was much shorter than the lighter coloured horse, but she continued and reached up with her head, opening her mouth to nip the stallion back, not at all as strong as he had bitten her, more of just to make him feel it and for her to try to show that she wasn’t something that he could just toss around. As quickly as she had done it, she stepped back, body tense, waiting for the retaliation she figured would come.
|