fenris

For the breadth of a heartbeat, Fenris thought the creature that approached him was a child. Having lived in the Lagoon for the entirety of his life, he had seen more than a handful of stallions - some thick of muscle and bone, and others lean, the wiry muscles beneath their coats better suited for speed than strength. The proportions on this one were wrong; short and stocky, the other stallion would have found it a trial to rest his chin on Fenris's withers, and the boy was not done growing yet. At a distance, this immaturity and inexperience would have been invisible; in close quarters, however... However strange the circumstances he faced, Fenris could not afford to hesitate.

Angling his body so as to face Dogun directly, the dark creature responded to Dogun's cold greeting in a voice that could best be described as a growl, rough and raspy from seasons of disuse. "I am called Fenris, and I come seeking a mare." He stated bluntly and without the formalities that Felony had taught him were only a waste of breath. But he was not unaware of the treacherous slope he now stood upon, in the instant between stating his intentions and explaining them. If the plucky stallion thought he meant to steal one of his women away, he would have cause to attack. "Not to take," the dark stallion elaborated, his last words still hanging in the heavy silence that had fallen. "I am less interested in her body than the debt of blood I am owed."

Ignoring the instinct that he should never expose weakness to an enemy, Fenris turned his head, angling the ruined side of his face toward the small grullo stallion. It was a sight that had been known to turn the stomachs of even the battle-hardened bachelors; where there should have been an eye, there was only a dark pit. And rippling outward from Fenris's cheek... the jagged scars twisted together, then branched out across his face. One line curved neatly over the empty socket where his eye would have been - had he not been born without it. The puckered flesh was bare, and paler than the hair that framed it on either side, and the story it told was clear in the telltale signs of skin that had been torn by canine teeth.

"Her name is Morrigan." Fenris said, and his lips curled unconsciously as he continued, revealing blunted teeth that had already begun to yellow. "She came from the Inlet, and I can only assume that she returned here. I am told that she is black, with a silver mane and tail. She is not as young as I, but still in her child-bearing years." The image of Morrigan tenderly washing a foal who was healthy, who was whole was like a dagger driven deep into his breast, and his expression twisted along with the phantom blade.

"She was my mother. Tell me, what kind of mother tries to kill her child, the flesh of her flesh? And then tell me where she is - because if you would try to protect her, you are more of a monster than I am."

colt / yearling / dark bay / friesian mix / 16 hh