[Koiji/Caity/Open] The Wraith and the Solar Flare.

[Illu]

Night at the boggy was hardly pleasant. The treacherous swaps hid many traps and holes where a horse could fall and flounder, die struggling for escape or drown. Seemingly solid patches of grass would give way to a hidden pool at the first hint of weight where even the stoutest horse would disappear never to be seen again. Pits and cracks in the hidden ground waited for the thin leg of a racing colt to trap and break, leaving the poor creature to hobble pitifully too injured to continue or remain there, stuck and screaming, awaiting the end.

The spring had also made things, if possible, worse. Fresh snowmelt off Kosciusko had swept in and raised the water table, making the ground even more unstable and once safe crossings a seemingly bottomless ditch of ocean monsters.

And that was just during the day when one could see where they were going.

Yet, inexplicably, in the midnight dark and lit only by the light of the full moon two shapes were moving. One whiter than white with eyes of red, another a glowing gold like a solar flare against the black behind it. Both horses seemed to attract all light to them in an almost eerie fashion, the chestnut-like one particular, which was glowing far brighter than even the reflective light of the large moon should allow, while the white was a pale ethereal ghostlike wraith in the swamp mist. Two legends thought to exist only in imagination had appeared tonight, walking among death.

The white one was proving to be the more adept at picking his way through in the dark. His red eyes darted around astutely taking in details no horse should be able to see at such an hour and easily pulling off difficult little tricks and jumps needed to navigate through the worst of the bog. The colt of the sun behind him seemed sluggish in comparison in a manner completely at odds with the way he looked. The sun colt was well formed, with plenty of scope and apparent athletic ability; but he was acting quite lethargic by comparison. It was as though the darkness was draining the sun horse for everything he had and feeding it into the Nightrunner before him.

Finally they reached the outskirts of the Big Boggy, the worst now just a section of a bad memory. The ground was more solid here, the grass shorter with a better view of the ground. A large twisted tree grew out of the marsh, apparently having found enough solid earth to lay root and for the first time the Nightrunner found himself treading confidently. It was actual grass now, not swamp grass and sphagnum, though the mist and noise of frogs and crickets was still thick in the air.

”Think I’ve found a good spot, at last” he said triumphantly, lifting up his tail and jogging a tight circle as though to test the ground. He was so wound up it was as if he wanted to try and buck to hit the moon then leap right into the still, black water. ”And consider this revenge for dragging me through this mess earlier today. You know the sun and me don’t agree. If it turns out I got burnt I’m kicking your ass all the rest of the way.” Earlier during the day had been almost a mirror opposite of the scene tonight; the strong, powerful looking orange horse leading, mane and tail almost extensions of the light of the sun itself and his whole being fuelled by the power of the heat and brightness while a wretched white colt tailed behind, shrunk back, blinded by the light, burned by the day.

”We’d best clear out before dawn though, seems those stupid mozzies come out at dawn and dusk and I’d like to avoid another swarm as much as possible. They must breed here or something, I’ve never seen so many in one place before,” he cringed, almost feeling all of that afternoons bites coming alive again with the words.

After waiting for his friend to catch up the Nightrunner hovered nearby uncertainly. It was clearly meant to be a resting place for the two of them but the white horse was unwilling to stop just yet. ”Wait here for a bit, I’m gunna keep going so that we have a path picked out when it lightens up enough for you to get going properly again,” he said, quickly moving forwards again. He so desperately wanted to run, but a trot would be suicidal even at the edges as they were. Careful walk it was, further into the mist, the sound of frogs and shrill insects still ringing in his ears.

Maybe there’d be something to find?

||OoC|| Caity’s character can catch up when she gets back from holiday. ^^ ||

[tingara]

The only way Koora had survived the Boggy so far was by following the sure footing of the ghost like stallion in front of him. With the moon high in the sky the sun stallion was but a shadow of what he had been earlier in the day. As the sun had set so had he, so to speak. He could feel his energy wanning as the pair of oddly coloured horses travelled further into the swamp. Koora could hardly lift his legs up out of the mud. Up ahead the Nightrunner was positively glowing, both from the moonlight and the apparent boundless energy her exuded.

Koora huffed as he attempted in vain to keep up with Balun. By the time the companions reached the edge of The Big Boggy, the Sun Stallion was nearing exhaustion. By some great effort Koora kept himself from collapsing at the first sign of solid ground. All around the noises of the insects, frogs and other animals of the swamp pounded inside his head. What the hell were they doing up at this time of the night?

As Balun spoke, Koora barely registered him. He caught snippets of what the white was saying, mainly the ‘I’m kicking your ass,’ bit.
“Kick my ass? Just way till morning then we’ll see who’s kicking whose ass,” the sun stallion said between yawns. “Yay dawn,” he whispered as Balun continued to talk. That would be when the tide would turn and it would be the Nightrunner’s turn to feel as awful as he did now.

His travelling companion decided to scout ahead and Koora was more than happy to let him go. “You go ahead, I’m not moving one inch from this spot, not even for the ghost of Thowra himself,” some of the Sun Stallion’s fire had returned to his voice at the prospect of rest and he lowered himself onto the ground, sighing as he did so. The statement really wasn’t entirely true, if Koora did see Thowra's ghost the ‘brave’ colt would have been out of there so fast you might have thought it was daylight again.

[»Koiji]

The blackness that coated the rolling hills of the Cascade's was unbelieveable. Once the sun had gone down in the winter, the nights were long and bitter, often cold and seemingly endless. Not a creature seemed to stir, the hillsides were still as far as any eye could see. Unaware of any other presences close by a ghostly figure steped her way through the bushes, slowly entering the bog. Her pale coat and red eyes were a strange sight, she moved gracefully; surefooted even on the uneven surface that her hooves were upon now. Miah tossed out her mane and walked toward the forest on the other side of the Big Boggy, her aim to get there before day break. For a creature so graceful and elegant in the dark, the day brought a different side for the mare. She was unable to go out in the day, due to a sensitive skin reaction to the sun.

Despite the blackness of night enveloping the lands before her, she could see almost as if it was a normal night. Her eyes flickered across the bog, trying to detect if any other animals were about. The lands were alive with the sounds of chirping crickets and frogs. Miah's ears flickered as she heard something. From where she was stood, she thought she could hear voices, but she wasn't too sure as she couldn't see anything lying ahead.

She carried on walking, the moonlight radiating off her coat. Once she had reached about half way across the bog, a scent caught her nostrils, she stopped and took in a lungful of air. It was definatly two horses that she could smell, both of their unique scents catching in her nose. She looked down at the ground, in attempt to see if that had left any track in the trechourous bog, but she couldn't see anything. Miah started to walk again, cautiously making her way now. She wondered if she might find a herd ever again. She'd been wandering for a while now, and not being able to move during the day, but who she did meet during her night journeys was either stunned by her resembalence to a ghost, or freaked by her red eyes.

It wasn't long before the bog beneath her hooves turned to grass, and her keen eyes soon spotted the two figures she'd scented before. She smiled to herself as she spotted the two colts. They looked happy enough. She stood rooted to a spot for a while, but then noticed something about one of the stallions, he looked like her. She snorted, seeing the ghostly colour of his coat, and the red eyes. She also noticed the firey red who was lying down. His coat was like looking at the sun, all red hues and firey colours mixing in with the flame coloured hairs. It seemed it was a night for legends, she stood there unsure of whether to move or not. She whinnied softly, not expecting them to hear, and waited to see what would happen.

||~Meep, sorry I'm a little rusty =S It'll improve =3~||

[Illu]

Balun didn’t exactly get to go very far, not even out of earshot or Koora before something white caught his eye. The Nightrunner felt his breath catch in his chest as though the muscles of his chest had suddenly seized up to he couldn’t breathe, and the back of his ears broke out in a sudden sweat of fear. He’d know that look anywhere, that way the mare was moving, the pelt, the eye colour. It was one of his kind. Had they come to hunt him down?

Reason slowly caught up and he felt his breath slowly escape his chest and out his nostrils, and he realised he’d left a foot up in the air. No, she was older than him, and he didn’t remember ever seeing her before, which raised a number of questions. If she wasn’t from the Nightrunner herd then what was she doing out here among the coloured horses? Did she escape or was she born here? If so were there other herds they didn’t know about? Had the answer to their inbreeding problem been out here all along?

”Koora,” he hissed, as though frightened his voice would scare her off. ”Goddamnit Koora, look up.”

|| OoC || Hah, no need. After my intros my post quality goes to hell. ||

[tingara]

“Thowra’s ghost,” Koora chuckled to himself sleepily at his joke. Man he was no clever, he’d have to make sure he told Balun that in the morning once the sun had come up and his energy restored. The Sun Stallion had come up with a plan to sneak in some more hours during the day before he’d be forced to stop for Balun. The Nightrunner could take it as payback for making him walk through the Big Boggy at night.

The sleeping would have been practically instantaneous if a certain Nightrunner hadn’t been hissing in his ear. Groggily Koora opened his eyes to see what the other stallion wanted. Through the trees, there he was! The very ghost of Thowra. With an extremely frightened whinny, the Sun stallion dragged himself stiffly off the ground and attempted to bolt. Really all the stallion did was hobble a few metres before practically falling over himself at the feet of ‘Thowra’. Looking up he saw through the darkness that it was a mare identical to Balun. To say Koora felt more than a little foolish was an understatement and a half.

“Uhh hi there,” he said awkwardly as he picked himself up off the ground.

[»Koiji]

Miah's ears flickered as she watched the two stallions. Her little whinny had been heard by them, she watched as the other Nightrunner stiffened, probably shocked that there was another Nightrunner here, and the Sun Stallion tripped over himself in an attempt to flee. She giggled to herself softly, a grin replacing the dismal look that occasionally took ahold of her features. She could tell that they were probably both wondering about why she was here, so after she heard a "Uhh, hi there" from one of them, she dared to take a couple of steps closer. Her red eyes stood out against the white of her coat and the little amont of moonlight that was shining made her appearance all that more eerie. "Er... Hey." She responded stopping again, a sheepish look crossing her features.

She stood there for a moment, not sure of what to say. After a while though, it was her that broke the silence with a question. "So, what are two young stallions like yourselves doing out here?" She asked, curious to the answer. She was intrigued that both of them were here, considering the two coat colours were of the rarer end of the horse population in the High Country. She was curious even more about why the Nightrunner was here, she knew from her past that her old herd had moved through the night and were careful not to be seen. For a moment, the mare looked like she was lost in thought, which she was. Thinking about her old herd made her wonder if this young stallion was from it, maybe he'd been seperated from it like she had... Her head pun slightly, and she mad assumptions as to the origins of Balun. The Sun Stallion however, she had never seen a coat quite as individual, or as stunning as his. She shook out her mane to stop herself daydreaming, and turned her attentions back to the young stallions.

"I'm Miah, by the way." She added hastily.

[Illu]

”Idiot,” Balun scoffed as Koora managed to do a fantastic job of making his IQ look like it sat somewhere between one and three. The escape attempt would have likely been a little more successful if it hadn’t of been in the middle of a swamp. At night. In the pitch black. Oh well, this was a good trial however. If the other Nightrunner ate Koora as the golden stallion seemed to think was likely, then it was a good sign to get the hell out.

The mare was, predictably, quite nice. Now that the shock of seeing another of his kind had more or less dissipated, he was following Miah’s train of thought almost to a T. Who was she? Where did she come from? If it was from the same place did she get away the same way he did? And finally, what was she doing here of all places. Balun knew why he was here, to be smartarse and taunt Koora for his post-sundown ineptitude mostly, but her excuse should be interesting. Perhaps the Boggy was just a prime hideout for stray horses unwilling to be found.

”Err, we’re just passing through mostly,” Balun explained while putting on a brave face and wandering over. ”I’m Balun, this is Koora. What about you?” She was older than they were, he noticed, and tall, with all the proper ethereal breeding. Well, so much for thinking he was some kind of rebel, apparently he’d been beaten to escaping his herd some years ago.

[tingara]

Hearing Balun call him an idiot through the darkness, Koora was too tired to answer. Also the embarrassment of thinking the dainty filly before him had been the ghost of Thowra was keeping the usually loud colt quiet. For now he was content to let his travelling companion do the talking while he concentrated on not passing out from exhaustion.

“Hi there Miah, I’m Koora. Oh Balun’s already introduced me,” the sun stallion once again embarrassed himself. It just wasn’t his night tonight, well it was never his night, Koora hated the night with a passion. “What are we doing here Balun?” he yawned before looking at Miah thinking she was Balun. It took the sun stallion a moment before he realised it was the filly he had directed the question at. Hang on; he could be forgiven for that. Apart from the different bone structure, the two white horses were almost identical.

“Hey you’re just like Balun,” Koora pointed out, making sure he was looking at the right horse this time.

[»Koiji]

O o C ; I can't begin to say how sorry I am for the wait D: I promise I won't disappear off to no-where again this time x3 Sorry it's a bit blah too =[

B I C ;

Miah giggled as she watched the poor sun stallion try to figure out who was who. It was understandable, both the ghostly horses were almost identical, apart from the fact that she was slightly taller due to her age. She smiled, and answered the Night-Runner's question. "Well, I'm here mostly because I have no where else to go. I lost my herd a while back, and I've been alone since then. So I guess you could say I was wandering, hoping to find some sort of salvation from my lonely life." She paused thoughtfully, before adding ; "Do you mind me asking what herd you're from Balun? I've never met another like us, except for my old herd of course."

She then turned her attention back to the other stallion, who was more weary than the ghostly Balun. He introduced himself and then seemed to cringe as he realized that it had already been done by his friend. "Nice to meet you both, by the way." She added, before conversation started again. She didn't want them to think that they were in the presence of a bad mannered, loner of a mare. Her white ears pricked forward as she listened to them.

Miah giggled again as Koora struggled to tell them apart. "I'm sorry I keep on laughing, I must seem rude. But not to worry, it must be hard to tell us apart, esspecially in this light." She flicked her tail at nothing and grinned, hoping to make the colt feel a little less embarrassed. Koora pointed out the obvious and Miah's grin spread further across her muzzle. I wonder... She thought, Would he have originated from my old herd?