Post by + ebonite + on Sept 24, 2016 20:00:30 GMT -7
AHZIDAL
DAY ONE
The attack was swift and sudden. One moment he had been playing with his brothers and the next moment he was being dragged away against his will. And when he put up too much of a fight, they hit him over the head and everything went black.
When he woke he was in some sort of sandy pit and it was completely dark. He looked upward and saw the roof of a cave above him, but nothing more than that. His eyes were still adjusting to the dark. He was completely alone, as far as he could tell. There were other ways deeper into the cave, but he stayed where he was. He was trembling all over, not knowing what had happened or why he was here. What did they want with him? Had he done something wrong? He had only been playing. Were there rules to playing that he didn't know about?
Tentatively, he got up from his place on the ground and shook the sand out of his fur. The cave was cold and he could feel a brave behind him, down into the blackness. He tried to sniff the air, but there was nothing to smell down here. He could hear the drips of water very very faintly, but it was down the tunnel. He couldn't really go down there, could he? It was too dark. Besides, whoever brought him here would tell him what to do. If he had done something wrong they would tell him. They would tell him and he would apologize and everything would be okay. He had to believe that.
With that in mind, he curled up down on the soft pit of sand, blinking in the darkness, waiting for someone to get him.
DAY TWO
He had fallen asleep yesterday waiting for someone to get him. Now he was awake again and he was terribly hungry. And thirsty. His gut felt empty and hollow and painful. He thought someone was going to get him, but apparently he had been wrong. Was he supposed to go down the dark tunnel? Was that his punishment for doing wrong? Maybe that was it. Maybe there was food there. There was definitely water. He could hear it.
Picking himself up from the ground, he ventured forth, his eyes well adjusted to the darkness by now. The path dipped down a bit, but he was going so slow that he kept his footing easily. He didn't like the dark. Even if he could see a bit better everything was still strange and distorted. Like he couldn't see shapes clearly. It was unsettling and made his eyes screw up. He blinked and shook his head, continuing on. This tunnel was long. And so dark.
Eventually he must have found some other sort of chamber, because he could feel the breeze on his skin and it didn't feel so closed in. He could hear better. Opening his mouth, he let out a slow clack with his tongue. It echoed and bounced off the walls and back down the chamber he had just come from. There was no other response. Wasn't there anybody in her with him? Why would they pick him up and ditch him in a cave like this? He grumbled a bit to himself. This was stupid. This wasn't some prank his brothers were pulling on him, was it? If it was, they were dead meat! And he would get back at them way worse than this. Grinning a bit to himself, he continued onward, trying to think of ways that he could top this.
At the first sight of light, he let out a squeal and forgot himself. He ran ahead toward it, even if it burned his eyes. There was light, there was light!
And abruptly, he ran headfirst into a figure standing at the cave entrance.
He dropped to the ground at the impact, shaking himself and snorting. He looked up.
It was a stallion, plainly so. Completely white from head to toe, with feathered feet and a huge, musculed barrel. He made Ahzidal feel like an ant. He was at least nineteen hands high, if not more. And his face. Ahzidal would never forget it. His face was disfigured on one side. A huge gash in his skull had taken away his eye and most of his cheek, leaving nothing but sunken flesh and scar-tissue, pink and gnarled. The other side was pristine and perfect, except for his eye. It was blood-curdling red. Warning signs and red flags went off in Ahzidal's brain like lightning and he tried to scramble to his hooves and run, but the stallion whipped around faster than he'd thought a stallion of his size could. He blocked his exit and Ahzidal smartly did not try again.
"Hello, little one." His voice was deep and softer than Ahzidal would have guessed. It only added to the warning signals. This was not a good person. "What's your name?" He asked. "Ahzidal." He answered, shakily, almost breathless with fear, certain that any moment the stallion would step over and crush him. He could do it easily with just one of his hooves. His hoof was bigger than Ahzidal's entire head. "Ahzidal." The stallion rolled it on his tongue and turned back to Ahzidal. His face was expressionless throughout the conversation, but this time he looked almost curious, glancing away from the colt. He looked back at him then and this time there was promise in his eye. "We're going to have a lot of fun together, Ahzidal."