take what you can. Posted on May 21, 2020 at 07:22:04 PM by Rade
to live and burn is
the most exquisite form of self destruction
Easy laughter parts the roan's lips at the stranger's grim humor - the kind that few held the power to elicit. Rade's ochre gaze softened with appreciation of the other's company, and the tension that tautened his white-grizzled skin eased. Concern for one's offspring was a matter that the stallion could easily empathize with; he too had sired his share of daughters and had experienced the inevitability of letting them go their own ways. The sorrow that he'd felt in the moments of their departure was not unlike the grief felt after a loved one's death - and why not? It was unlikely he would ever see them again.
The direction of his errant thoughts made the roan stallion all the more determined to locate Leto and the child he'd sired. As heartless as he might seem to an outsider, family meant everything to the palomino who'd once been rejected and denounced by his own sire. Rade didn't need to be told about the cruel tendencies of fate; he'd experienced them well and often. And despite the stark differences in the appearances of the strange pair, there was no shortage of similarities as well. The constellations of scars that littered their coats, the peppering of grey hairs on each of their muzzles, the subtly-accentuated curve of their withers. But if time was his enemy, then Rade would fight it with the same ferocity that he'd claimed in his youth.
"The comforts of herd living have never appealed to me," Rade revealed with the verbal equivalent of a shrug. "The Lagoon has always been the home of my heart, but circumstances prevent my returning there at this time. I have little desire to be drawn into their foolish war." He glanced backwards at the Peak - a place where he could never truly be comfortable, even if he had been willing to try. But at least there was companionship, and opportunity; in the Lagoon he'd found only solitude and ruin. "For the moment I must content myself with squatting in the Peak, at least until the Vulcans grow weary enough of my presence to evict me."
Stillness had never been Rade's speciality, so he found himself shifting his weight again, one hind leg now cocked so that only the frontmost rim of the hoof touched the ground. "And you? If you could choose any place in this world to call your home, which would it be?" His golden eyes were intense where they met Bondurant's, his burnished figure leaning subconciously toward the other stallion as he continued to speak. "The world seems to believe that it can move on without us - that we are too old to protest. But I am not so far gone that I will lie down and accept that hand that fate has dealt me. As much as some might wish it, I'm not ready to lay down and die."
The lean stallion punctuated this passionate speech with a snort of disdain. Then, inhaling deeply in an attempt to cool the heat that pulsed in his chest, he spoke again. "But where are my manners? Here I have already blistered your ears with my indignation without so much as introducing myself. I am called Rade." Silence fell between them again as Rade awaited the spotted man's response. Perhaps the sound of his companion's name would jog his memory and confirm his suspicions that they had met before, in a time so long ago that it felt like another life.