Hazy Shade of Summer

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 The Shadow of the Colossus never did wander too far from her prince, being by his side at all times if she could help it, but she would allow her stag some air on occasion.

 That occasion was now. She had moved on to graze quietly among the shadows of the pasture, a nearby herd of her selfsame species grazing nearby. She would not intrude on their space, eyes trailing over to them every so often as she pondered her own home and how far it must be from here. To awaken in a land that was not their Kingdom... she felt isolated and lost.

 Yet, when she looked upon her Prince, she felt steadied.

 The wolves here were strange but she would not be led astray by their insistence on living near the herds. She and her prince had moved on from the land beside the elk, where strange deer lived. The ones here, unlike those, felt simple. She pondered approaching them to inquire and converse, eyes trailing across them to point out any bucks that might appear and attempt to make a claim on her that they had no right to make.

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Getting across the river proved a little more difficult than it was on the way back. She soaked herself and it took hours to dry, even in the warm sun. She tried to stay in spots where the sun shown but the thick coverage of rainforest made it difficult and as she got to the pasture, something still unfamiliar, the depth of her coat was still damp while the fringes clunked together a little haphazardly.

 Brilliance shook out her fur and stretched, lowering to the ground to rest her legs. The pasture was seemingly overcast despite the morning sun peaking through the horizon but it was as good as she was going to get. The warmth of the day had started to increase and the severity of it was yet to be seen. In the meantime, Brilliance hovered on the ground in a light rest until sounds of birds and rodents chirped her into a light slumber.

 It wasn’t until the soft sound of swaying grass tricked her back to the waking world, flipping her mind at the same time as her body and coming face to face with a dark coated deer.

 Brilliance shrieked dramatically.
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 She moved, stepping gently through the brush and nibbling at the coarse vegetation here. The plants here were strange, well nourished but somehow still tasteless. It was if the fog itself held them back from becoming the tasty, sun-filled morsels that one might find in sunnier plains or even forests. It was nearing summer and Roe had yet to find any good fruit trees - she longed for the peaches of her past.

 The memories drifted over her and she found herself thinking and eating without paying too much attention to her surroundings. In her childhood... she remembered walking beside her mother and finding a peach tree, over-ripe fruits fallen and mushy on the earth. She had often played with them, squishing them with her hooves as her mother reached up to the branches and pulled down fresh peaches for her to eat. The sweet juices had always been a treat and she adored the memories.

 A wolf-child arose from the depths of the fog and Roe leaped back, startled.

 It began screaming, screeching like a fawn with its leg caught, and she stepped back, ears pinned. Was it calling for its pack, to come seize her? She twisted her head around, searching for her Prince - for even if she had to flee, she did not want to leave him. He was nowhere to be seen so she looked back at the child and struck out with a foreleg, aiming to bonk the wolf on the head with the flat above her hoof to shut it up.

 It was not nearly strong enough to harm the thing, just enough to maybe stun it or cause it to shut its mouth and perhaps bite its tongue. Something, anything, to stop the racket.

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Morning came like any other day and the ball of light traveling the sky was obscured by a level of grey leaving a white circle hanging ominously in the air. Tanned paws carried him through the woods until he reached where the trees thinned and the low hanging mist stretched across the almost empty clearing. Aries hung in the undergrowth, the red of his fur more than noticeable against the green but it wasn't like he was trying too hard to blend in.

Red eyes peered out to the grazing herd, a straggler catching his eye. The doe looked old enough to know better than to hang at a distance, but her mistake would be his breakfast...or so he had hoped. Another entered the fray, a girl young and dark aside from the moonlit rays that spotted her sides. For whatever reason she had walked right up to his prey, a wail echoing the clearing just loud enough to startle the morning birds.

His ears twitched back in annoyance, the shriek a pain to his own ears, but before he could storm out in protest the deer before her struck out. The growl rising in his throat bubbled down, clear detest written across his face as ruby eyes sat heavily on the child for her reaction. Perhaps she would run along and he could go back to hunting, or perhaps she would regret ever stepping foot near the Nightwalkers and disturbing their hunting grounds.

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Brilliance barely had time to sort through her slumber after being startled awake that she didn’t notice the raising of the deer’s hoof. It wasn’t until it connected with her crown that she blinked her wide, baby blue eyes, and stumbled back onto her butt. The hit was hardly anything to consider painful but she was rather put off that a deer had bonked her and was still standing face to face with her.

 Unsure what to do, Brilliance knit her brows together and remained silent for a few beats too long. “You hit me,” she blurted, shifting her weight so that she was standing on all four again. “You scared me awake and then hit me!” She stiffened and glanced up for a second, searching for @Agrafina to confirm what happened, but for the moment she was nowhere to be found. Instead, she took a few steps back away from the deer lest she be hit again.
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 The doe snorted, leaping back and staring at the tiny thing that was yelling at her. Her tail flicked up, bright reddish fur splaying in a way she hoped the other deer would recognize from a distance. While not exactly as white-tailed as the rest of her kind, her under tail was bright against her dark coat.

 This child was far too frail to harm her. It seemed more disturbed that she had fought back than desiring to hunt her. Wolves are never alone, she thought, stamping her hooves on the ground this time. “Wolf.” The herd was starting to move at the sound of her voice and although she was not a part of it, she felt the draw to join them in the flee, her heart rate rising. “Wolf, run.” It was almost to herself, almost to the child, almost to the herd that was too far to hear her.

 Where was her prince? She stepped back away from the wolf again, noticing from the corner of her eye a bright orange that contrasted sharply against the foliage and mist. Her face jerked to look at the shape and she recognized it as large enough to be a much bigger threat than the child before her. The way it lay low in the leaves was a sharp indication of a hunt. The child was bait, a distraction! She bleated, “@Rajah, wolves!” before bolting, bounding away from the golden predator and hopefully towards her Prince.

 And hopefully not into the waiting jaws of any of the golden creature's hunting party.

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Rajah's head shot up from where he was grazing when the words traveled to hit his ears. Wolves.

His body turned around with force the deer forgot he had. His princess was in danger! He could not sit still while there was danger nearby, even if it meant his death. The prince dashes - he shoots for his partner unawares of how many wolves truly were around. It doesn't matter anyway, he has to get to her. He cannot leave her behind. Instead of turning tail when their scent hits his nose, Rajah lines himself up with his princess. He nearly bounds right into her, they would end in a pile of legs and death, so he is quick to slow himself down.

"Are they after you?" He question-shouts in their mother tongue - a dangerous noise. His own tail is flagged up behind him, he's got one hoof stamping on the ground loudly. "We must run. Come!" He choses instead of fighting - too dangerous too dangerous. Rajah noses at Roe to get the both of them going again. They will NOT be hunted!

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The girl as useless as she was stumbling upon these grounds seemed to bleat back in complaint after what should have been an easy meal bonked her. Not long after the doe seemed to find him, eyes growing wide as she scrambled to follow after the herd that had already begun to take its leave with all the commotion.

A primal growl rose in the man's throat as he was quick to his feet, charging after the doe as she scanned the foggy fields as if searching for something. As he tore across the plains though, another entered, a buck who nudged the young doe into motion just as his jaws clamped shut on empty air. Aries could have followed, could have tried again, but instead, he snorted watching as the two tore off towards the herd.

It would be too difficult to hunt them with the male's antlers and his cover blown, so with little left to do her turned the fires of his eyes to the girl that had ruined it all. She stood below him, scrawny and young, something that didn't surprise him given how she just blew his own meal. “Nose broke, Girly?”

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It all started happening at once. She’d rambled about the deer hitting her, stunned, and didn’t necessarily expect it to talk to her. Animals, especially prey, had once only spoke amongst themselves. If they could talk between species, she had not noticed; she was but a child. @Agrafina was still sometimes odd to her but she was getting used to it and enjoyed the company. For a moment, she thought perhaps she’d made a second friend (was that weird?) but it was some garbled form of wolf, run! that escaped the creatures mouth.

 Brilliance, uncertain if the thing was telling her to run or was warning someone else, stepped back a few and prepared to go. She didn’t know if there was a pack of deer out there ready to attack but she should start expecting the weird lately. The thing spoke again, this time at something—someone—else and spun around on their hooves and darted away. The girl blinked a few times, one paw lifted in the air, and slowly turned when the booming presence of another approached.

 Nose broke, Girly? the looming creature asked. Brilliance wasn’t keen on sticking around. It was already weird, a little scary, and this male did not make her feel like she was safe. She stared at him for a second before she shifted and darted away.
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Agrafina had been away a few days, certain her wolf companion could take care of herself until she returned. As a loner falcon, it was important to her that she get time away from others. However, she did find she liked the company of this particular wolf, even if she didn't much like others. 

The hazy pasture made it difficult to find Brillo, as the fog blanketed the ground. Her sharp eyesight fought against it, but it took the noise of an altercation for her to pinpoint where her friend might be. She dipped below her normal cruising altitude when she was close, and found her friend trying to scurry away from someone she could only assume was trying to hurt her. 

The feral falcon didn't waste any time in going after the supposed attacker. She tucked her wings into her body and soundlessly dive bombed the male wolf. At the precise right moment, she expanded her wings to stop her body from falling, and then unfurled her talons as they stretched out before her. Coming from above his side, she aimed for the top of his head. If she hit her target, she would slash him, enough to note her seriousness, but not enough to rip flesh from bone.
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 She felt teeth snapping behind her and it urged her on, panic swelling within her chest. The hot breath behind her faded and she realized that it was just she and Rajah running now, fleeing. She would not slow, would not look back - instead she ran on, into the herd and away from the predators.

 This would not be the birthplace of their fawn.

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Exit!

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posting since rajah is npc aries will exit here!

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His words had barely left his mouth before the girl got the bright idea to run. He would have chased her down, ensure she never came back or hunt her down to drag back to the boss, but right as he had stepped forward to pursue a freakin' falcon came out of nowhere. Aries felt the sting before he even knew what had hit him causing the fireborn to stop in his tracks with a growled snap of his jaws aimed blindly at his attacker.

No way he was playing chicken with a fuckin' bird. Even if he could easily snap its neck he wasn't about to make a fool of himself snapping at air while some lesser being teased him from above, so with a snort he watched at the girl sped off before ultimately retreating into the fog.

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