[Sanctuary] Effigy

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on October 22nd, 2012, 6:08 am

Sama'el smiled and nodded, pleased to have been able to help in some small way when his help hadn't been necessary for the surgery. It was like watching a choreographed dance the way Kavala healed. He ran his hand over the newly gelded foal's strange coat as they walked to the recovery yard, stepping back to let his dam tend to him. It was heartwarming to watch, especially for a Drykas. He only hoped Issima and their child were as well recovered when she finally gave birth.

As they moved on, he looked thoughtfully at all the structural damage. He didn't understand much about constructing permanent things, but he knew he would stay to help where he could, at least until Issima and the infant were ready to travel on to Endrykas.

He nodded at her pronouncement, too. It seemed right the name of a pavilion should live on in a breed of horses. Had he been in a position to do such a thing when he had lost his own pavilion, he might have done the same. But for now he could not speak its name.

"I know they will honor the name," he said, and then moved forward to check the colt she had mentioned. He was certainly the largest. At first he kept his distance, knowing the Bloodbanes to be carnivorous and nasty. "These are the foals of Denusk crossed with Bloodbane?" he asked to be certain he understood the lineage. He had some idea of what bloodlines were going into her new breed, but she had not laid out her records for him or anything.

If he had it aright, though, these horses might not be so prone to bite the hand that fed them.

"He does look like the healthiest of them," he agreed. And as much as he trusted his own judgment, he trusted hers the more. "I will take him with pleasure. Thank you." But truth be told, he was most excited to see Dohaina and find out whether she had thrown a filly or a colt, and to see with his own eyes that they were well. Of course, Kavala would have told him straight away if it were otherwise. There had been a thin thread of torture through the last months, being away from his Strider.

Still, he was quite interested in Kavala's horses, and so he didn't ask yet about them. He learned more from a conversation with her than he would from several conversations with any other breeder.

by **Kavala** on October 27th, 2012, 4:55 pm

Kavala shook her head at Sam's question. "No, they haven't had their bloodlines brought in yet. When I had them brought from Ravok, I specified mares already in foal to Bloodbanes. I got mares that had foaled last year already and had been rebred so I had to wait a year to see the results. So these foals are purebred bloodbane, born about ninty days ago. They are ready to be weaned. There's That's why I need to sell off the males. I got three fillies and and two colts this year, which was lucky. I've already rebred the mares on their foal heats to the pre-Denusk horses, the mixed stallions I picked to see what happens. I will breed the fillies in two years. I'll train them all for war in the meantime though. I might not be able to get them to catch at all mudding their blood, but we'll see. So far the mares have all stayed in foal. It just depends on the harsh winter and how fit everyone is going into it. And then I don't know what they will throw that's mixed blood. That next generation, I'll keep entirely if I like them and breed them to the best of the colts like Zakil that I keep intact. Then we'll see what they do to improve or muddy the blood." Kavala said. It was evident, in the way she talked, that a year or two to her was no worry. Her lifespan was long and she had time to linger over bloodlines and play Goddess with the offspring to see what she could create.

"Anyhow, the grey is the better of the two. He'll lighten with age though he looks black now. The chestnut is going to be a bright copper penny color but hes got a weaker hind end. I'll geld him before he goes to a new home. " She said, knowing she would not as a conscious breeder pass on flaws.

"Oh. Something else you might want to see." Kavala said, leading Sama'el onward. She'd been saving this, deliberately not mentioning it. They crossed into another paddock behind a second building to a group of broodmares with about forty to fifty day old foals. Sama'els mare was there, but she had two rambunctious foals roaming around her. It was hard to tell which was hers. One appeared normal, with a full strider body and long straight legs. It was a red dunskin colt. But a second foal paused beside the mare and Dohaina nuzzled her. The mare immediately allowed the foal to begin nursing. The colt ran over as well and both offspring pulled off the mare's bag, one on each side. The filly was so pale she was almost white, but her color turned a light light gold in the sun.

Kavala grinned. "Twins. It almost never happens and usually one is smaller and doesn't survive. But she was here and the filly did fine because we stayed with her in shifts, and I think she'll be okay. She's not going to be a giant of a horse, but if you have a smaller woman in your pavilion, she'll make an amazing mount. She's smart, perhaps as smart if not smarter than the colt." Kavala said. "And hes going to be a monster... eats everything in sight and has great lines. He's lacking a bit of common sense though, I've noticed. I think the filly got it all. You're mare has good breeding." Kavala said, then watched for Sama'els reaction.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on October 31st, 2012, 6:27 am

Sama'el nodded through her narration, impressed how she kept all those plans and details straight in her mind. He knew he could do that too, if not with such skill, perhaps. It might become helpful to have Leto teach him to read and write, however, in order to keep records. Otherwise he would just have to have someone in his would-be pavilion with a knack for learning oral histories learn the bloodlines of their horses.

"Pureblood like the Ebonstryfe ride, or as pureblood as you see outside of Ravok?" he asked by way of clarification. He seemed to remember horror stories of dark paladins bonded to flesh-eating monster horses. This one who would be his didn't look so vicious as all that, but then he was not grown, and appearances could be deceiving.

In any case, the little colt didn't bite him, even when he carefully checked his teeth and hooves and musculature with his practiced hands. Maybe the little beast liked him, or Kavala had already started training the random viciousness out of him. Aggression was not a bad trait in a horse bred to be a warrior, after all, but needless aggression was wasteful and undisciplined.

But after her explanations, he followed her out to the paddock with the broodmares. When he saw his beautiful Dohaina, he nearly bounced with excitement. This was how he ought to be with his Issima, but a dark cloud covered that pregnancy. The golden mare looked to be in perfect health, but of course she had Kavala looking after her. A mite tired, perhaps, but she would be caring for a foal. His dark eyes, normally a touch small, were open wide, roaming until a positive match could be found. There were two foals near her. The buckskin dun colt could be hers by the looks of him, though that filly... And then they were both suckling from their dam.

Did Dohaina look smug when she tossed her head and looked over at him?

Sama'el spluttered a bit before he could make a coherent sentence happen. Clearly between Kavala's skill, that of her assistants, and the strength of the filly herself, she was as much a miracle as her dam. He wanted to look them over with a hard, hard eye, using their traits to figure out Dohaina's hidden potentials. He knew the sire's bloodline from Leto, but Dohaina was a mysterious lady.

"Well... well, of course." He tried to play it off as cool and collected when all he wanted to do was crow with delight and tackle the things as if they were puppies. Sometimes Sama'el himself resembled and overgrown puppy, in fact. "Dohaina's sire is Zulrav Himself, her dam Semele. Twins are no great feet for her."

But his hands were trembling when he took her face in them and kissed her soundly on the mouth, then threw his arms around her, and then took her hand to lead her closer. As much as he wanted to run, he didn't want his first encounters with the little devils to be startlement and fear.

"Thank you," he said.

by **Kavala** on October 31st, 2012, 5:15 pm

Kavala laughed slightly at Sama'el. "If they were purebreds like the Ebonstryfe ride, I'd never have gotten them. They are purebreds, of course, but they are culls Sama'el. They only sell off the animals that don't have enough of whatever trait they wanted. Now, these six mares are vicious and carnivorous like you wouldn't believe. And on the battlefield they will turn and attack glassbeaks and zith and eat them right there in their rage. But my source who imported them for me said they failed their personality tests and weren't aggressive enough. Which, I have to say was astonishing because to me they are very aggressive. I had to be very careful introducing them to the herds. Now they are protective of them, but when they first got here, they just wanted to rip their throats and eat their bowels. I've seen them hunt as a pack too, collectively pretending to graze and moving closer and closer to deer... then pouncing on them. I don't have to hunt for them. They are quite capable hunteres themselves. And truthfully they are very affectionate once they get to know you." She added. "The colt will be easy to handle if you raise him among your other horses... protective too. But you'll have to watch him around other stallions when mares are in season. He won't just want to beat them up and drive them off his mares. He'll want to disembowel and eat them." She said thoughtfully.

"I'm hoping the Denusk colts pair well with the bloodbane mares. I'll have about ten total in the program. I'm hoping to pass on their intelligence, fierce protectiveness, and cunning into the Denusk line." Kavala said. "If it doesn't work, I'll geld and cull and never do it again." She added, chuckling to herself.

They moved onto her surprise and the reaction Sama'el displayed was better than any she could have imagined.

"I'd believe her breeding, I really would. Red dunskin is rare in any breed. I love the burnished red highlights instead of gold, and all his dorsal and leg stripes will be a red and coppery instead of black. I bet he'll have a slightly faded sunset color to him with all that redgold mane and tail. Don't geld him unless he turns out to be really lacking in common sense. You'll want to keep him to retain the dunskin color. Red is so fortunate." Kavala said, turning to stress to him how rare the coloring was.

"You'll have to name him something to do with fire or rubies. Swear to me." She said, turning back to Sama'el from her long lengthy gaze at the colt. She didn't expect him to catch her face in his hands and pull her to him. The sound kiss on the mouth caused Kavala to freeze and then react so quick it was as if something snapped inside of her. She brought her knee up into his groin in a quick vicious motion and at the same time snapped at his adams apple with the heel of her hand, almost violently instantaneously where he didn't see it coming. The knee and heel of her hand combined broke her free and she back peddled five steps, breathing hard with her face absolutely blank. She reached for her tamo daggers out of habit, and half crouched, defensively as if waiting for him to come at her again.

She blinked, seemed to come back to herself, and then rose to her full height which was still smaller than Sama'el. "I'm sorry... you... you surprised me." She said suddenly, a tremble passing through her whole body. "You should give... someone warning before doing that. I tend to ... I could have..." She suddenly wanted to be somewhere else, someone else. Sama'el knew none of the background of Kavala's life, but a great deal of it was probably laid bare in that instant.

"I'm sorry. And your welcome... very welcome." She said, releasing her daggers and slowly as if needing something to do, ran her hand through her hair. "It's been a long day and its still early." She finished, as if that were any kind of excuse.

"Are.... are you okay?" She asked after another moment, simply watching the result of her habitual motions.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on November 1st, 2012, 11:30 pm

Sama'el didn't know much about the Bloodbanes, to be perfectly honest. He had avoided Ravok like the plague, knowing their reputation for slavery and him having only just escaped it in Sunberth at the time. But the colt looked about right from the descriptions he had heard, and comparisons made to culls that he had seen outside of the rotting city. And he was a bit aggressive with Sama'el, but not violently so. Sama'el liked to think he had a rapport with horses, so he would attribute it to that.

Everything was going swimmingly; Dohaina and her foals -- foals, plural! -- were hale and hearty. Then in his ebullience, he made a tactical error out of sheer happiness, and ended up on his hands and knees unable to breathe, until the pain in his groin knocked him all the way down into the grass. Thankfully he hadn't landed in manure. His throat was closed, and the pain from his groin shot up to meet the pain in his throat; the sudden nausea terrified him, as he wasn't sure he could vomit without asphyxiating just then.

Dohaina had grown accustomed to Kavala, and affectionate, but she screamed something like a battle cry at what she had just witnessed, starling her suckling foals. A simple kiss of gratitude was almost as violent as the djed storms.

Needless to say, Sama'el couldn't answer.

by **Kavala** on November 2nd, 2012, 1:21 pm

The Konti didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to say either. The apology came through forced lips stiff with unexpressed rage. The emotion wasn't directed at Sama'el. It was directed at the individuals, all of them, that had rendered her incapable of accepting the kiss of a joyous friend without being surprised and injuring him. Sam went to his knees and then to his side and she knew she'd hurt him, perhaps badly, even possibly rupturing a testicle. He seemed to be struggling for breath and gagging all at the same time.

The part of her brain that was Crescent went into overdrive. She lunged forward, down upon him, rolling him to his back and planting a knee firmly but gently in his chest. As he still gasped she immobilized him, thrust her right hand up onto his throat that was already alight with Rak'Keli's power. At the same time, prying his hands away from where he lay shielding his sex, Kavala slipped her other hand slowly pressing deep into his stomach shoving downward to clear his belt and slide her hand all the way down his pants. She closed her eyes, holding him down with her knee, while her left hand reached downward, found him in the confines of his pants, and gently cupped the center of his pain in her hands holding him boldly and intimately for a long while... rubbing and stroking the pain away.

Healing gnosis poured through him, unrestricting his airway and releasing the pain in his genitals. She bowed her head over him, concentrating, sending out tendrils of power throughout his body. When she was sure there was no more pain, she looked up, released his neck, and then slowly withdrew her hands. Shifting, her knees came off him until she wasn't pinning him down but kneeling beside him.

Kavala said nothing, her face covered with shame, her eyes haunted. Kavala blinked, tears pooling in her eyes. "I'm really sorry, Sam. Sometimes... sometimes I just react without giving myself time to think. I am not sure why... but my higher level awareness is very protective." The Konti said softly, apologetically.

Then she bent her head and kissed him tenderly, her entire apology wrapped up in that singular heartfelt action.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on November 4th, 2012, 12:43 am

The day was already an emotional journey, but throwing such pain into the mix, he could hardly fight her off as she forcibly healed the damage she had done. There was the one lingering moment after the pain had gone, banished by her touch, that was almost embarrassing, but the true embarrassment came from the empathy he felt, his own shameful memories of slavery and the attendant actions meant to break a spirit to servitude.

There were tears in his eyes, and they had been born of pain, but the lingered for that empathy, that terrible fucking empathy. He sighed, and it caught something in his throat; he threw his arm over his mouth and coughed into the crook of his elbow.

"I'm sorry," he managed after her kiss, though it was a bit of a croak as his throat slowly relaxed, or it might have been his own shame brought back to the forefront of his mind like a -- well, like a knee to the nuts. But in that apology reflected back at her, there was perhaps more understanding than anyone ought to have. He didn't have to know the details, and perhaps she would understand that note in his voice.

His hand opened on his chest for her to take if she would, reaffirming their friendship. It was a crazy, messed up world they lived in, and crazy, messed up things were bound to come up, perhaps even especially between them as they walked parts of their spiritual paths side by side.

Dohaina was still making concerned noises, but she seemed to have spent her fury immediately, it giving way to worry. She was close, inspecting Sama'el so his other hand came up to pat her neck. The foals, still spooked, had approached too, though only that they might stay in contact with their dam.

by **Kavala** on November 4th, 2012, 4:20 pm

Kavala stared down at Sama'el, her eyes so pale a blue that she looked blind. They only ghosted to their blind color when she was feeling something strongly. And while the Konti carried no gift of reading people like she could animals, it didn't truly take Sight to understand that once, Sam had been in a place without choices too.

In one smooth motion she stood without using her hands and just rolling up onto her feet like a dancer. She was strong like that, power contained, though willing to use it when necessary. Now, obviously, was not the time. The leather she wore creaked comfortingly and her scent left his vicinity. She spoke softly to the mare, in pavi, the words rolling off her lips like the native speaker she was.

"Stop your fussing pretty mare. It's not as if you've never had an argument with a stallion nor kicked one a time or two." Kavala said smiling at Dohaina. "Besides, it hurts their pride when us girls jump to defend them." She said, walking a step or two, around Sama'el, to sooth her.

"Are you making camp outside? You can take one of the pastures inside if you like. It would be safer. There's been a pride of lions close to the walls so we've been moving stock inside at night to keep the lions out. We'll eventually get them all, but before we do, it's better to be safe if safe is available." Kavala said, looking slightly amused. She'd designed the facility to have two big pastures inside the walls just in case Drykas came to visit and camp. But every time Sam had come, he'd normally set his tents outside. That was fine by her, but she liked to offer soft living while she could.

by **Sama'el Sunsinger** on November 6th, 2012, 8:18 am

She didn't take his hand, but he didn't take it amiss. The look in her eye made him think perhaps she had looked past his eyes and into the shames of his youth, and if they acknowledged certain things silently, all the better. He got gingerly to his knees, though, and between Kavala's reassurances and seeing Sama'el ambulatory, she calmed down. With a whuffle to his hair, all was mended, and he gently hugged her head for a moment.

"What have you done, you clever thing?" he asked. "Twins?! I suppose we ought to work an homage to Kelwyn into their names, as well." Such an honor given to the gods of lost causes might prevent the next delivery, Issima's, from being one.

"Thank you," he said, smiling up at her for a moment. "We will avail ourselves of your pasture, and help you drive off the lions if need be. Then we can help some with repairs, although I do not think any of us are particularly good at building tents-of-stone." He used an old, outdated word for houses. The Drykas had given them up generations ago, before going under the ground into Semele's bosom to survive the cataclysm.

But he remained on his knees, coaxing the foals to him. That Dohaina was calm had calmed them, but while the filly was eyeing him while suckling, the red dunskin was walking right up to him, bold as you please.

"Vaknui'in?" he asked. "Fire of Wyn? I don't really know the old tongue, just a smattering of words. One of the elders kept saying Vaknui when they found out I could call Fire."

by **Kavala** on November 14th, 2012, 7:26 pm

Kavala laughed. "I have no idea. All I know is that I'm the worlds worst horse breeder when it comes to naming them. They don't much care for names, mostly, and so I give them names that remind me of textures or colors of other animals. I even have a white stallion named Ghost. The other stallion I'm training is Silk. He thinks hes masculine enough to handle his name though, so we get along fine. But I'll leave you to the task of naming your own foals. They wouldn't want what I'll stick them with." She said, reaching out to touch the red dunskin's nose. She tweaked his ear playfully, ducked a bite, and laughed at him. Then she concentrated a moment, tilted her head, and smiled again.

Kavala looked really young when she did smile. Most people forgot her age in the light of her serious attitude. But beings in her early thirties, she was only a teenager in Konti terms.

"He likes you. And he knows you are bonded to his mother. He says you have a history that goes back a long time. He is very aware of himself for a horse his age. I think you will do wise to never trade him. For hes already bragging that he will be able to run faster than his mother and tap the web better. That he's even aware of the web at his age astonishes me." Kavala glanced at the filly. "She's aware of her stomach. And she thinks she's more beautiful than he is. She calls him river mud. And he calls her sunshine to humor her. And because they are milk siblings, sharing the same teats. He's picked out which of my strider mares he'd cover as well. I told him Windsong would have something to say about that." Kavala said, still chuckling as she ducked an ill humored a kick from the colt and then swatted his nose.