They said we'd burn so bright.
We burn this city and go.
Paradiso wasn't sure what drew him back to Luthien. For the span of several months, the young stallion had enjoyed galavanting from island to island, exploring new and diverse terrains and meeting a few new horses along the way. The usually meek and nervous stallion had grown tenfold during this time. While Paradiso was still cautious and calculated, and very much an over thinker on the inside, he'd shown more bravery in recent weeks than ever before in his short lifetime. He'd successfully defended himself against predators when he brashly came upon them along the mountainous paths on Tinuvel. He survived a bout of colic that came after ingesting a poisonous, exotic plant on Atlantis. And all the while the stallion kept growing, taller and thicker as he morphed from stringy yearling to robust young stallion. His muscles rippled underneath his sleek spotted hide from the weeks he spent galloping and climbing and swimming. Paradiso was coming into his own.
But he would be lying if he said he didn't miss the family he'd left behind on Luthien. His last conversation with his brother, Shamwari, was terse and on edge. So much had been going on at the time, so Paradiso didn't blame him. Shipping him away to the Forest was perhaps the best thing that had ever happened to the young stud. Even if things didn't go according to plan.
News about the herds on Luthien had been quiet as of late. And as summer crept into autumn, Paradiso found no better time to leave the quiet shoes of the Bay on Tinuvel and head home for the winter. He washed up on the shores just north of the Prairie, at the mouth of a small bay that opened up to the winding trail into the Forest. He had clearly miscalculated the current, which landed him farther than his intended target. But the appaloosa stallion emerged from the waters no less, shaking the excess saltwater from his hide as he took long, firm strides across the sand and toward the thicket in front of him.
Crystal blue eyes surveyed the familiar trail under the canopy of tall oaks and pines before he strode forth. His nostrils flared as he searched for the scent of the roan stallion Asp who had seemingly taken over after Menkhet's disapperance. Both scents of the semi-familiar horses were still present, but they were faint and stale. Someone new was here, however. A strange, feminine perfume coated the trunks of trees and hung stiffly in the warm air. Curiosity got the best of him and instead of turning west to head toward the Prairie, Paradiso found himself winding deeper in the forest, alert and hungry to meet whoever it was whose scent he found.
Eventually the trees gave way to a small clearing and that's where he first spied her. Paradiso hung back in the brush as he watched her, a slight but darling young grey mare grazing by her lonesome. She didn't look quite as rugged and as fearless as Menkhet had. Two dark ear lobes flicked forward and back as he weighed this. Could she be alone here? Had she claimed this territory for herself? Paradiso snorted before urging himself forward and into the clearing, neighing hoarsely to her as he did so as to not startle her. He kept his distance as he approached, but his demeanor was slow and friendly. "Hey there." He began, with a smile etched across his whiskered lips. "Do you live here?"
Stallion | Evaline x Valentine | Smokey black pintaloosa | 15 hh | Photo © Carina Mailwald | © Vinyl |
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