InsaneJournal

Sindarran and Nelchara: Dancing in the Dawn
[Amitola RP with Kashi's Victory. ^^ All Vicky's parts written by her. Amitolas and all related elements © Tariya Bloom.]

Sindarran opened one eye. As predicted, the first thing he saw was a small black muzzle, the soft breath from its nostrils tickling his face.

"Are you going to make the sun come?"

Darran blew out gently through his own nose as he lifted his head to regard the sky before him. It was still dark. "Nel, I don't 'make the sun come'. I've explained it to you."

"Darran, make the sun come!" The filly pranced in circles around him, her mane and tail a blur of colour. She reared, waving her forefeet in the air. "Please?"

They had been through this routine before, but she never seemed to get tired of it. Perhaps that was a thing with young creatures, that they thrived on routine. Darran got slowly to his feet, ignoring the glad cry of the filly Nelchara as she increased her happy frisking. Slowly, he began to walk across the plain, and the she followed him, leaping around him all the time, clearly ecstatic that her ploy had worked once again.

They had reached a bluff of sorts when Darran paused to stand gazing up at the sky. He instinctively knew which way was east; he could feel the pull of the sun from far, far away. The bright disc would not appear for some time yet, but he could write and orchestrate the prelude to that. All he had to do was wait for light, just a bit of it. He couldn't work with darkness; it was the first hints of light in the sky that were his instruments.

Nel pranced, giggling, by his side, but she soon settled down and waited eagerly, her small face turning to regard first Darran's focused expression and then the still-dark sky. She knew something was about to happen.

Dawn was approaching soon, to Vicky's advantage, as she walked on through the plains. Being an Amitola, darkness was her ally, but she always liked daytime because of the warmth of the sun. She faced east for a while as she waited for the hints of approaching light that would soon peak over the mountains. She stood still for a bit until she heard the hoof beats of other horses. She turned her head to see another horse and a foal not far from here. Her nose flared in order to identify their scent. Both horses were Amitola, but the golden-colored one was a stallion. The foal she could not tell. Vicky stood there cautiously this time. Without thinking, she made a light breeze float over the bluff, causing her light blue mane to flow smoothly and her tail to ripple and go with the gentle gust.

A sudden light wind rippled softly through Darran's blond mane and tangled the coloured threads of Nel's own. Shaking her head, letting the cool air caress her face and neck like the velvet muzzle of some long-forgotten aunt or mother figure, the filly laughed aloud with delight as she reared, pawing at the wind with a pale hoof.

Darran's train of thought came to a sudden halt, and he took his eyes away from the distant deep blue horizon. That wasn't an ordinary breeze, he could tell -- and Nel apparently could too, the way she laughed and cavorted as if the wind itself had taken the shape of a horse. Somebody else was here.

He had not seen another horse in many a day. From a distance he had spotted the odd small herd, or heard the thunder of hoofbeats, or a distant cry. But besides Nel, he had not had contact with his kind since he had left the ranch, to search for... what? Who was he really? 'Amitola'. What did that mean?

His voice was low and calm, but gently insistent, as he nickered softly into the pre-dawn air, in the direction from whence the wind had come.

"Who is out there?"

Her ears flicked back and forth for a while after they could sense that she was there. The foal took some delight to her breeze, she could tell, but the stallion seemed a little uneasy. His nicker was soft an calm, but she could tell that he was hoping for an answer. These lands were so full of her kind. She wasn't ready to turn down a call. She raised her head a little high, being a mare that liked to be boss, she couldn't resist. But even though her posture was dominating, her voice was submissive.

"Just a traveling mare." She replied. And, with caution, she slowly worked her way over to the two. She could see them well, since they were slightly at the top of the plain. She was a bit far into the shadows. So she figured she should make her presence obvious.

Nel had halted her prancing by this time, her black ears flickering backwards until she had located the owner of the soft voice. Her blue-violet eyes sought out and found the blue-maned mare coming towards them through the dim light, and she lifted her own voice in a high whinny of welcome, switching her brilliant tail.

Darran regarded the newcomer quietly, not a muscle in his body betraying his apprehension. The mare herself seemed pleasant enough, but for so long it had been just himself and Nel. This stranger appeared to be closer to his age, and it made him somewhat nervous.

Snorting softly, he continued to stand, letting Nel do the greeting. The mare was close enough now that he could see her colour -- pure black, with a mane and tail of soft blues. He inhaled sharply. That colouring... so like Nel's, and his own. Would he find what he was searching for?

The filly had cantered over to the traveller as if greeting a long-lost friend, and raised her small black muzzle to the taller mare's.

"Hello and welcome," she cried joyfully, the multicoloured brush of her tail still lashing back and forth. "I'm Nel. Who are you?"

She came to a slow halt when the foal let out it whinnies. She could definetly tell, now that she was close, that the foal was a filly. She also sensed the stallion's discomfort, which was a first to her. Most stallions she had met were full of themselves and were always pleased to meet a mare. Plus, he was a normal height for an Amitola, while she was no smaller than a large pony; 14.3hh was too small for a purebred. Just as the filly came running down to greet her, she had inspected the blonde-maned stallion and caught a glimpse of something she hadn't seen in years: white markings on an Amitola.

"I see now," She thought as she relaxed. "He must me half Amitola. No wonder he's acting so funny. He's probably never met others like himself... except for the filly, that is..."

The filly's excited approach put a glow to her delighted expression. Foals. Being a mare, she had a soft spot for them. She lowered her head for Nel once she tried to bring her muzzle to hers.

"Thank you, Nel," she replied gently. "I'm Vicky." She brought her head up slightly to look at the stallion that remained in his tracks. "Who is your friend?"

Nel laughed aloud. "That's just Darran. He's my friend. You have a nice name, Vicky!"

She reared on her hind feet, pawing the air, before cantering back to Darran, tossing her head, tail pinwheeling.

"Come and meet Vicky, Darran," she nickered insistently, nudging at his shoulder with her nose. Darran gave her a glance of consternation, but he found his legs moving forward at the filly's urging as if of their own accord. Looking back up, he observed the strange mare before him.

He gave another soft, nervous snort before extending his nose to hers, his ears flickering back and forth. "G' morning to you, ma'am. I'm called Sindarran, and this little scamp is my friend Nelchara."

His orange eyes softened for a moment as he bent to give the filly a nudge with his white muzzle, and she darted out of reach, laughing, before looking back up at the blue-maned mare, her eyes shining.

"Where do you come from, Vicky?"

The stallion's introduction was a lot more formal, introducing himself and Nel with their full names. She smiled a little bit at Darran's comment towards Nel. It was practically sibling rivalry; another thing she missed. It took her a minute, but she slowly replied to the extended nose, and touched his muzzle with hers.

"Morning. I'm called Victory. But everyone has always called me Vicky." She replied in a calm, gentle voice.

She watched Nel play and was very lost in her; she seemed like a very fun filly. She slowly put her ears forward in order to snap out of it and listen to the question.

"Come from? Oh yes. I have been living in the plains mostly since my herd always lived in a wooded area. I had a half Amitola in my old herd that had been terrified of the mountains so my parents moved away from them just for him. He had been scared to leave his..." She paused to think of the word. "...Ranch... and it didn't help that the mountains nearly killed him during a rainstorm..." She shook her head a bit to rid of an itch and she returned a friendly smile. "I had been traveling the mountains for a while since my sire spoke of other Amitola living there. I have come across few, but we have gone separate ways really fast. So I currently decided to leave the mountains for a bit and return to something more home-like for me."

She paused again and then, glancing back and forth between Darran and Nel, asked, "Where do you come from?"

Amitola. Darran's ears had snapped forward at the mention of that name.

"Amitola." He said the word in a low quiet voice. "My father was one. At least it's what my dam told me. But I don't know what it means."

The stallion shook his head, sending his blond forelock flopping over one eye. "Ranch... that is where I was born and grew up. They called me Sunny then -- Sunny-Boy. Because of this." He indicated the saffron sunburst on his hindleg. Was it just his imagination, or had the thing grown since he had last looked at it?

"My dam said my sire was an Amitola. That I wasn't like the other colts and I had to leave there. That my name was Sindarran. I don't know why I did what she said. I liked the ranch. I liked the other colts, even if they were a little rough. I liked the people..."

"Then I found you," interjected the filly, snuffling at his neck. Darran turned to lip at the vivid hairs between her ears before returning his orange gaze to Vicky.

"I only need to look at you to know that you're the same as we are, Nel and I. What does it mean, Amitola?"

His voice was soft, calm, but his eyes gleamed and his ears flickered forward and back, betraying his desperate wish for a final answer to all his questions. He didn't even notice that the sky rimming the horizon had lightened to a pale blue.

Her ears flicked back and forth as she slowly gathered her thoughts and came to a conclusion to his answers.

"Amitola are the one of the most highly respected equines. Gods, one would say. Our kind were created by gods long ago, combined with the blood of almost extinct equines of the heavens and the elements that balance the earth. So we all have unique abilities that no other equine has; with each one of us having a certain element that shifts and changes as the bloodlines pass on."

Her hears flicked back an forth again "I'm sorry if this ruins the mood, but Amitola were not meant to be in fenced meadows, or tamed by humans. I'm sure your dam thought that too, it was why she probably wanted you to leave. Other equines know the stories of the Amitola. The wild equines... just on the other side of the mountains-" then she tilted her nose back to the mountains that were a ways away. "-have the privilage to run near our homelands. Captive equines get an honor to stand in their presence. Humans, for hundreds of years, have tried to catch our wild blood and tame it, but so far, none have succeded. Except for the half-blooded. And even then half Amitola should know what it's like to taste the air like a pureblood, all that I have met that were raised by humans as foals or have been born to equine mares still ache for that longing to be free; their Amitola blood begging them to run wild like one. Freedom is our nature. Running wild is what we do."

She slowly turned a bit to shift an edge. "Amitola were created to protect the heavens and guard their gods and goddesses. Now we technically protect the mountains." Then she glanced back to the mountains where she had spent some time leaving and took a moment to watch the sun slowly rise from the peaks of them. "They say that the mountains are the stairways to the heavens. I found it quite facinating as a filly. Now, I just take pride in my blood. And... I have a weird feeling that it might be true."

She took her eyes off the sunrise and looked back at Darran. She suddenly tilted her head as she noticed the strawberry highlights in his blonde mane. His face was a bit clearer now that dawn showed itself.

Darran's eyes widened. "Wow," he murmured softly, gazing at the distant shapes of the mountains on the horizon. At this distance they seemed no more than hillocks, but Darran knew how far away the horizon was.

There was all so much to take in. He wasn't really sure what to think, except to wonder what it was that had resulted in his own birth, why nobody had figured it out earlier. He felt as if something had been kept secret from him all this time, living on the ranch in his own happy bubble, but now the bubble had broken and the world had turned out to be a lot larger than he had anticipated. He wasn't sure whether he liked or disliked the resulting feeling.

Nel too seemed subdued, and for a moment she simply stood as if deep in thought, without even her tail flicking. Then her head swung towards the east, and instantly her ears pulled forward.

"Darran, the sun's coming!"

The first rays were just starting to outline the mountains in glowing light. Darran, turning to face the east as well, simply watched for a moment as the light grew, and then ever so gently, he reached for one of the rays and pulled. It arced over their heads, sending a beam illuminating the darkness on the other half of the sky.

"So that's it then," he murmured again. "That's why I can do... that?"

Vicky stood there and gave a warm smile towards him. "He had taken it better than the others I've told," she thought. Nel's excitement brought her attention back to the rising sun and, with much delight, she marvled at how Darran made the sun rise so quickly.

"Powers of the sun," Vicky said in her own way to answer Darran's question. "You bring out the rays of the early sunlight and shift the colors of Dawn. I have heard of that bloodline of Amitola. My mother had told me a bit about that." She paused. "You do seem a bit... new to it though. Have you just been learning to use it after a long time? Or are you young? Not to sound rude, but you do look a bit... coltish."

Darran shook his blond forelock out of his face as he lowered his head and regarded Vicky out of one eye.

"Nobody taught me. I just stood beneath the dawn sky one day and thought about making the sky red, and before I knew it it was. Whatever colours I could imagine, the sky became so."

He blew softly out through his nose, and swung his head around once more to bunt Nel with his muzzle, sending her spinning away in laugher. She galloped towards the eastern mountains, rearing, trying to catch the light on her slender forelegs.

Keeping his eye on her, the stallion continued. "My mother saw me one morning, and for the rest of the day she acted strange. That was just before she told me who I was -- what I was."

With a sigh, his orange eye returned from the dancing filly to the blue-maned mare by his side. "But what shall I do now?"

His answer to her question was an odd one, but she understood it well.

"Coltish." She said. "But he is very polite. And... sweet..."

She slowly got lost and gave a warm smile as she watched Nel run around and act like a foal. She liked listening to Nel for some reason. It seemed so... heart warming. Her ears flickered back and forth once Darran returned his attention to her.

"Do you mind accompanying a mare such as myself?" She said with a bit of embarrassment in her tone. "I am very herd oriented... and... the two of you seem like fine company." Her ears flattened back as the shy tone continued to climb. "And... well... I miss being in the company of my own kind... I just wish that my other encounters with the other Amitola I have met along the way were longer in length."

Nel's musical whinny drifted back to them through the freshness of the morning air, and Darran closed his eyes and took in the sound as he always did. There was that quality to the filly's voice, and her movement, whenever she sang and danced as she was doing now. The colours of her mane and tail swirled together in a flying rainbow, and he felt himself thrill at her song. Even after all this time together it never failed to touch him in some way. Sometimes it made him melancholy, at others joyful, and at still others a warm sense of calm and peace. This morning, he felt a strange excitement stir in his barrel chest, as if he were on the brink of something new, something aswim with possibilities and new frontiers.

"Vicky." Darran tried out the mare's name on his tongue. It had been so long since he had spoken to another horse besides Nel, and now here was one that was apparently 'one of his kind'. Whatever that really meant. He supposed he would find out.

"I think I speak for both of us when I say it would be our honour -- and pleasure -- to join you... wherever you are going. We have no set destination, so we may as well wander together. Safety in numbers and all that."

The strange breeze that had seemed to have a life of its own, that had told them where the stranger was -- all that had been Vicky's doing, Darran realised now. He wondered what would happen as now the three of them journeyed. Who would he meet, and what would they do? All of a sudden he couldn't wait to find out.

The glowing rim of the sun peeked over the mountains, setting fire to the bottoms of the clouds, and the sky flushed a deep rose colour. The dawn was slowly becoming the early morning, with the sky changing into it's daily colors. From the purples, pinks, oranges, and then almost instanly, a flushed color that was as red as roses. Nel's dancing and her foalish, limber body made interesting early-morning shadows and the reddish glow of the morn' gave beautiful highlights to her black coat and multi-colored mane and tail.

She turned to Darran and could definitely see his mane was more than just blonde. Those pinkish highlights she thought she saw were definitely not her imagination. She slowly rose her right hind hoof into a relaxed position. Her long feathers slightly swayed along with nature's wind. For years she always liked having her wind dance with the earth's, so she collected her head and closed her eyes as a content smile crept onto her face and a more pushing breeze blended in with the lively one that was there. The wind that was present now was a cooling breeze, that made the manes and tails dance and sway; her feathers now high and flowing with the wind instead of limp and always on the ground.

"I too have no clue where I'm going," She said contently. "But I did think about heading a bit back to the mountains. Yesterday, when I just left the boundries of the mountains, I felt flakes of snow fall down to the earth. So winter's coming, and I always like to hide a lot during winter seasons. It had been a habit since I was a foal, my father disliked the cold so hiding was a seasonal ritual..."

The natural breeze died down, giving the flow to their coats a steady swish. So she slowly died her wind down, leaving the grassy plains silent for the time being. She thought about bringing her breeze back, since she noticed that Nel took a liking to that nice wind.

As the wind picked up around her, setting the long threads of her brilliant mane and tail to flying, Nel danced along with the breeze, the movements of her feet, body and head growing more and more fluid and beautiful with every step, prance and gavotte. She sang, too, laughing as the breeze whisked her song from her mouth and away into the air. It was the loveliest sunrise she had seen yet in all her short life.

The feeling of excitement deepened as Darran felt the soft, playful breeze that seemed to emanate right from the mare's feet. He knew he had been right to suspect -- there was something different about it. Something vibrant, and full of life, and as it swirled around him he leaned into it, letting it blow his mane away from his face and off his neck. It was exhilarating. He too felt full of life now, rejuvenated.

Amitola. I should be afraid. But I'm not, not anymore.

A deep, rippling equine laugh broke from his throat. "Why don't you show us the way then, Victory," he called to her. "We are even more adrift than yourself? Show us the way, Mare of the Mountains, and we will follow you."

Already Vicky's own magical wind had faded away into nothing, and the natural breezes scattered, fleeing away over the grass. Nel's black ears pricked as she heard Darran's call.

"Are you coming with us, Vicky?" she asked, trotting back up to them and putting up her muzzle to the blue-maned mare's, not bothering to hide the hopefulness in her eyes. Nel never bothered to hide anything away.

"Coming with us?" Darran laughed again. "Nel, we are going with her."

She could tell that her wind and nature's had brightened Darran a bit, for she could sense that had been a bit tense. So she once again gave a warm, motherly smile as she noticed him looking more lively. It was her thing with every equine she met. She opened herself up for everyone, it was whether or not they accepted. To Vicky's delight, someone finally returned the invatation. Or as she would think... two equines accepted that open heart.

"Well, if you put it that way... Sindarran," She said with a tone that sounded smart alec, but she was really tickled that she got to 'lead'. Being a dominant mare, leading was her thing.

Nel caught her attention once more as that little fuzzy black muzzle tried to reach and touch her own. Even though Nel was barely a yearling- she could tell- the little filly was still quite close to reaching the small little mare. Her brown-tiped ears flicked back and forth for a minute as she let Nel gather the explaination that Darran tried to correct, but she eventually lowered her head and gave a small nudge on the filly's nose with her own muzzle. It was practically a mother's nudge. She knew just how to do it right, since her dam used to do the same thing to her.

"The mountains are a bit far off." She said, then she snorted a bit to get a better inhale of fresh air. "If we do need to stop, I know a small creek nearby that has thick leaves on the trees to shield us from any kind of weather. I think I also saw an apple tree just by that creek, too. I never go in a hurry, so we can take our time." She lifted her head just a bit and then gave a sly smile. "Unless we need to tire out miss Ball of Energy here, then I don't mind a good trot or gallop though the fields. I have ran places before, just to build stamina."

Darran laughed again at her use of his own full name. Vicky had just seemed entirely too familiar for a mare he had only just met -- it might be all fine and dandy for sweet little Nel, but it just didn't sit right with him. Even if he already felt the tension had dissipated, blown away with the wind and the music and dance, melted into nothing by the first light of the sun. The rays were now warm on his black and orange back, and he tossed his head.

"Lead on then, Mare of the Mountains. You know the way far better than we."

Nel, laughing aloud at the prospect of a gallop, leapt forward as if operated by springs and away over the turf -- not at a gallop, but in a series of bounding strides that from a distance made her resemble a small, black-and-rainbowed antelope. Breaking into a canter, Darran followed along behind her at a comfortable pace, only briefly glancing at Vicky to see if she would follow too.

Mare of the Mountains, She thought briefly when he said it. That's cute. I guess I should have told him I'm more of a field horse. But then again, I guess being in the mountains for a while has its advantages.

Once Nel began bouncing her way through the fields and Darran trailed along, she instead stood there for a minute. She looked around a bit as she noticed the daylight turning to the normal blue and the clouds turning fluffy-white; daytime approaching and the dawn had done it's dance. One tiny breeze tangled into the individual hairs of her feathers, sending them floating just a bit. It was all she needed. The minute she noticed Darran checking to see if she'd follow, she broke out into a long gallop, her front legs striking high in the air like those of a dressage Saddlebred, and caught up to the colt by just a horse length away.

The wind was whistling through his ears, but he still heard the hoofbeats as Vicky thundered up next to him. Laying his ears back, Darran broke into full gallop, glorying in the new strength that the wind and the dawn had given him. Even the sound of Nel's flying, thudding feet was a rhythm, and he matched his own beats to hers as he bore down on her to nip gently at her shoulder before wheeling and dashing away, letting her run after him.

For a whole day they played and galloped and danced on the plains. It was only when the late afternoon sun began to gild the waving grass about their feet that Darran glanced towards the west. It was the turn of the mountains in the east to grow dark and blue.

Nel skittered beside him and flopped down on the grass, breathing hard, her neck and mane damp. But she whinnied softly, tiredly, proclaiming to as wide a radius as she could that she was happy.

Vicky's ears perked up as she watched Darran get a burst of energy and chase after Nel to get her flight practice a better success. She eventually threw her head in the air and went bursting after them, running off to the side occasionaly so she could watch the playing from a side view.

By evening, after Nel crashed, Vicky was also in a bit of a sweat. Even though her nostrils were fluttering and her lungs rasping for some more air, she felt pretty pleased with herself. It had been so long since she ran with other of her kind. And she missed it badly.

"Before Nel gets too comfortable, do you mind making a little trot farther down?" Her nose gave her some time to smell the air. She could smell the creek she mentioned. It was close. "By the time we get there, it will be late evening. Enough time to get a drink and find a place to relax for the night." And, with that, she slowly began to walk forward towards the destination. But she stopped the minute she past the two. She turned a bit to face them, just to see if it was all right.

Darran tossed his head, throwing his sweaty mane from one side of his neck over the other. "That sounds good. Up we go, Nel."

He nosed the little filly carefully to her feet and she wobbled against him like a newborn foal, laughing all the time, but keeping her balance. Slowly, they made their way after Vicky, glad to follow and find this place of rest that she told them of.