you're the puppet. we're the strings. ||

[kat]

Here he was, little more than a colt thrust head first into a land he most certainly did not belong.

It tasted like home; the seething pits of magma he could feel purring violently beneath his sturdy hooves at every step. The sweet, benign aroma of smoke and ash and above all, the lingering taste on his tongue which told him here lay the rest of what should be his kin.

They weren’t, though. For as much as Vulkhan appeared to be a Zunden, with the brilliant scarlet like tribal brands down the length of his back, his amber eyes, his height, the burly strength. At three years, Vulkhan should have been gaining muscle, entering the period of his life where he stopped growing upwards and instead began to put on bulk. Instead, he was already a monster- at 17.1 hands, he was only just within the height range of his ‘kind.’ Any higher, his blood would have betrayed him.

Vulkhan was a halfblood, among the dirty rats that were loathed and slaughtered without mercy by the pure Zunden. He was a tarnish, a blemish, on the purity of their race. However, he was also incredibly hard to pick.

He looked, smelled, acted, walked, breathed like a Zunden. He had been raised amongst them, and for a very long time he’d acted convincingly enough to be thought as one.

But as inevitably was bound to happen, one small circumstance led to another and the time came where he was exposed for the one tangible difference that set them apart- he had inherited only half the Zunden powers. For this small fault, this disability, he was hated. He was immediately driven from those that he had considered family, and though they sought to kill him he had escaped and lived alone, a nomad, a halfbreed cripple.

And so now he sauntered forward, the ground giving way with a pleasant crunch at every step- and he was a burly shadow, a sheep in wolf’s clothing, strolling with pleasant conviction towards a place that would probably doom him to another few years of playing pretend before his comrades cottoned on to the charade.

In that expanse of time, he had decided, using whatever cunning and manipulation he had at his disposal, he would ensnare these creatures as thickly as their hatred had whipped and branded him.
This land was thick with the scent of flesh, sweat; thickly inhabited, his senses told him it was a reasonably sized band of horses. Easier, then, to blend amongst them.

His heart drummed thickly in his chest as he gazed upwards, his whinny a full, throaty call which betrayed him instantly as a stallion.
It was the whistle that began a deadly game only he was playing.

[Vel]

Aiden.

The Fire Lord had been rather bored for the past few hours. Aiden wasn't a very friendly horse, so he never stuck around to have much of a conversation with any of the herd members. He always kept his military leader facade, since it was what he knew best.

The stag had been wandering through pits of magma for the past few hours out of boredom. It was nice, being able to wander through a substance that would instantly maim or kill any other being. The intense heat never bothered the Zunden. In fact, wandering through magma pits was like sitting in a warm bath, very relaxing.

The Fire Lord's audits perked when he heard the call of another stallion in his land. Aiden quickly flattened his ears and jumped out of the magma pit, not even bothering to shake the rest of the molten rock off of his mauve hued coat.

Obviously this new stallion was a Zunden. Or he was just a very, very stupid normal who had wandered into Fuoco thinking it was a nice, safe place. This caused Aiden to grin a bit. It might be nice to have a normal horse wander into the land. The Fire Lord hadn't had that much fun in a while.

The stag halted when the new comer was only strides in front of him. Aiden lifted his crown to study the stallion with his maroon optics. With a flick of his sooty coloured tail, the Zunden stepped a bit closer to the new stag. "Who are you?" he asked in a very demanding manner.

This stallion looked to be as much Zunden as aiden was, but you could never be too sure these days. Aiden had come across several half breeds and quarter breeds that had the powers and looks of the true breed.