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LightningWolf913 — CV - Azar - A Flickering Light
Published: 2019-03-16 18:57:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 1225; Favourites: 32; Downloads: 5
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Follow AZAR'S Story (Since he came under my ownership)
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They say that curiosity killed the cat. Carraphim wasn’t a cat, and he wasn’t about to perish, but he was curious alright. He’d settled back into herd life the best that he could. He was still distant, but he talked to Azar. He made sure of that. The last thing that he wanted to do was push his closest friend away. Then where would he be? Alone again. That was where. And that was the last thing that he needed.
That morning, he’d felt eyes on him. He could have sworn that it must have just been one of those damn birds that never ceased to chirp away at the crack of dawn. Azar loved them. He could tell just by the look in his eye when he paused to listen to them. Carraphim couldn’t say that he felt the same. They disturbed his sleep that he hardly got any of to begin with. And so he’d ignored that sensation that he was being watched for as long as he could until he couldn’t stand it anymore. He’d risen to his feet just to go and chase off whatever bird it was that was taunting him. However, it wasn’t the eyes of a bird he’d been met with.
It was the soft, youthful eyes of a foal. The little guy had startled the second that he made eye contact with the ferocious looking Carraphim, and he turned and bolted back into the woods. With no more than one little glance over his shoulder at his herd, and a quick note of his surroundings, he turned to follow at a brisk trot. This foal was none too graceful, stumbling through the leaves and making a racket. He was easy to track.
A freshly turned stone here, a bit of brown and white fur caught on a tree there. The leaves and pine needles scattered across the forest floor were ruffled up from feet that were none too coordinated. He kept up just fine, but didn’t follow too closely. He didn’t want to drive the foal too quickly. Surely he’d seen stallions and automatically assumed the worse. He knew that he had for a while. He’d seen any living creature and assumed the worst before Azar.
“You don’t have to run.” He murmured, pausing when the tracks slowed, and doubled back on themselves. That foal must be nearby, then. He took a casual glance about himself, not all too terribly worried. It was just a foal. There was nothing to be afraid of in that. “No one will harm you.”
“I don’t believe you!” A high voice came from behind a large tree. Carraphim slowly rocked back on his haunches to turn himself around, then started towards it with his head low and steps steady and lazy.
“Why not?” He asked as he poked his head around, just to see the end of a flaxen tail vanish around the other side. He flinched when he felt little tiny hooves hit his hocks, and he jumped forward a bit. “Hey!”
Now he gave chase for real, and was right on the colt’s heels as he turned and sprinted away from Carra with his tail flagged and head turned to watch over his shoulder. If the dun stallion knew any better, he’d almost think that he was being taunted. He slowed to a trot when the foal zipped left, then right, losing him easily in the trees. Well, he wasn’t that agile. He was big and had a thick body. He was none too dextrous.
He could still hear the foal flailing through the leaves to his left, but he stopped completely and didn’t move for a few moments, just watching from the corner of his eye. He felt his heart smile, if just the littlest bit. It felt almost like a game. It was the sort of game he’d not gotten the chance to play when he was young, forced to grow up far too quickly for any sort of fun. This was different. He didn’t even mind the sting in his hock from where he’d been kicked. For such a little guy, he sure had good legs on him.
“You think that you’re a big, strong stallion, don’t you?” He sighed, lowering his head closer to the leaves and turning to face the colt. He’d stopped his frolicking by now and had frozen, tail flagged and ears curled towards him, so upright that they almost touched at the tips. “Mmm yes, I see it.”
The colt puffed his cheeks out indignantly and stood a bit taller, his tail curled over his back as he turned and trotted away. Carraphim could say he hadn’t ever really seen anything like this before. Maybe he’d been that colt once, but he couldn’t remember it anyway. He didn’t remember any of those happy things, it seemed. At least, not as much as he wished that he did. He knew he’d be lying to himself to suggest that his entire life had been nothing but disappointment after disappointment. It wasn’t miserable. He had a herd. He had a friend. He’d made this future for himself.
What point was there in playing it up to be worse than it was? Rather than pursuing the foal any faster, he walked after him, watching him weave and bob and leap over sticks when they snapped underfoot. The colt was completely unconcerned by Carraphim’s pursuit, albeit a lazy one. Wasn’t it a peculiar thing, how much an older horse could learn from the youth it encountered. After all, they’d once been weanlings and yearlings as well. They’d all once felt what it was like to dash carelessly through the leaves. They’d all felt the sun on their face for the first time, and smiled into the cool rain after a long, hot summer day. They’d all splashed through rivers and tripped down muddy hills. Where had he lost it along the way, that spark?
He couldn’t say that he remembered the exact moment. It was well before he’d been run away from his mother. Even then, he felt like he had a lot of responsibilities. The things that he longed for he realized that he hardly recalled. It was the little things that he didn’t appreciate enough anymore that he realized were the parts of his life that he was missing.
He didn’t look up at the birds in the morning and want to sing with them. He could imagine that was why Azar loved them so. Every now and then Carraphim had caught him humming idly along, creating his own tune with a stride that seemed to dance along with them. He didn’t know what that stallion had seen or experienced. He knew that it had made him someone brilliant, however.
Carraphim didn’t marvel at the way that the sky turned brilliant shades of red and copper and gold every evening, or watch the stars fade from the early morning skies, watching each one until they vanished in the day. He didn’t sit and listen to the rain, and instead dropped his head into it and complained. The sun didn’t feel good. It was an inconvenience and a nuisance at best when he’d rather be sleeping. The distant rumbles of thunder didn’t strike a certain wandering fear into his heart that made him want to dance. Not anymore.
And that made him frown, if just a bit. His thoughts had wandered, and he realized he’d gone and lost track of that foal, and he stopped, staring at the path ahead. His heart felt heavy and his whole body felt weak with the realization. He stared numbly for a while at the woods ahead, golden rays of sunlight filtering through the barren branches that were just beginning to show the first buds of new life. It was a strange sort of pain that he felt deep in his bones. It was an aching, a yearning that he had felt from time to time but he couldn’t put a hoof on quite why.
Not until now. It was an ache that started in his heart and travelled down through his front legs and cemented him to the ground. It was a heaviness in his head that made it burn from his poll down into his eyes and made him unspeakably irritable. It was a throb through his gut that felt like rocks settling in his abdomen, and left a shocking weakness in his hind legs. However, he thought he understood it now.
His youth. His vigor. Where had it faded to? What had ripped it so brutally away from him, so forcefully that it left him breathless? His hopefulness. His joy. His spirit. His purpose. Who had stolen that from him? Or was he his own villain?
He stared longingly for just a few more moments, and he almost wondered if that was what he’d been chasing instead. Maybe it had been some figment of his imagination that he’d created then and there with the intent of trying to chase down a piece of who he was. And he’d allowed himself to lose it by reminiscing. With a sour taste left in his mouth, he turned away from where he’d seen the foal only moments before to return to the herd.
And he couldn’t say he’d felt this alone in a long time. Perhaps Azar could remedy this ailment to his heart as he did with everything else so effortlessly. And with a smile on his face… Carraphim wondered how he did it.
He startled when he heard the crunching of leaves from behind again, loud like someone was running up on him from behind. He leapt forward and then swung himself around, only to be face to face with those familiar eyes that had been staring at him from the shrubs minutes ago. He’d been just about to strike out again when he stopped himself, unable to really breathe. It was real. His lips tensed, drawing back into what he forced into a frown at the face of such a fierce looking little foal. Well, as hilariously fierce as one could get.
And then he lost control of that frown, and it broke into a grin. And that grin turned into a bout of laughter. Real, heartfelt laughter that came from deep in his chest and rumbled from his throat. The colt seemed bothered that he was laughing instead of shrieking in fear. However, that didn’t stop him one bit. He reached his nose forward to give the colt a shove on the shoulder then, just enough to knock him off balance and send him scrambling the other way.
“H-hey!!” The little tobiano called, standing with his legs splayed and neck arched, trying as hard as he could to be frightening. It wasn’t working.
Carraphim had to take a few moments to catch his breath, and that smile he’d let slip was infectious. It refused to leave, and a pleasant tingling spread from his face to his neck, all the way down into his heart and belly with just a little tickle.
“You almost had me there.” Everything seemed a little brighter, at least for now. The various shades of dull grey washed away into a brilliant pop of gold and green. Even the little foal he was pursuing smiled in the face of Carraphim’s newfound joy.
“Yeah? Well, you’ve never even gotten close! Hah!” He stuck his tongue out at him and made a sound blowing it between his lips that made Carra jerk his head up. He flicked his mane and stomped a hoof at the weird tickle that noise aroused in his gut.
That momentary confusion was all that it took for the colt to get a good head start, and Carraphim had to trot after him again. The two wandered through the woods together, the stallion eventually relenting in this chase and cantering after the little one, nipping at his tail whenever he got close. Each time it produced a squeal from the foal who leapt straight up in the air and then took off bucking and kicking out. Each tantrum produced another smile on Carra’s face, and rekindled the flame in his heart. It helped him to remember a part of himself that he’d forgotten.
He was so lost in this moment of pure bliss that he forgot that he wasn’t able to follow everywhere that foals went. The tobiano colt danced across a fallen tree that was cast across a shallow ditch, dodging the effort involved with climbing through it. Without a second thought involving the possible consequences of his actions, he stepped right onto the log and started across. He stumbled a bit when his hoof got caught between a couple of branches. He pulled once, twice. The colt paused to watch from across the log, obviously enjoying this game too. At least until the game wasn’t so fun anymore now that he wasn’t being chased.
“Come on!” He hopped up into a little rear and spun himself around. Carraphim glanced up at him, his ears falling back as he pulled again, and that time, the log spun. He gasped, his eyes shut and his jaws clamped tightly shut as his back hit the bottom of the ditch. Muddy water had gathered in the bottom, just a few inches deep, and splattered his coat with dark brown.
He would have been angry. He’d have been scared and upset and humiliated, if it wasn’t for the laughter he heard from above. His hoof was still effectively trapped, but at least it wasn’t pulling against anything. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and reevaluate before moving again. The colt was giggling down at him, thinking that his current predicament was awful funny.
“Ohh yes. Keep laughing. See where it gets you.” Carra grumbled, pulling on his foot to try to yank it free again. It wouldn’t budge, and now it was time to panic. He kicked at the log with his hind legs, his heart in his throat. By now, the little cold had stopped laughing. Instead, he made a nervous sound and backed away.
“M-maybe you should stop. This isn’t so fun anymore.” he said softly, his voice wavering with worry. Carraphim only stopped after he was spoken to, his ears tilting back towards him and his breaths coming out quick and jagged. “I can get help.”
“Help…” The dun echoed, blinking a few times as he thought about that. “Do you remember which direction we came from?” He settled into the mud, no matter how uncomfortable it was and how it made his skin crawl. He calmed instead, and while gazing back up at the face of that foal, he realized again that this would have been one of those things he’d have savored as a colt.
“Yeah! I remember.” He nodded excitedly, looking thrilled at the prospect of helping out. “I can do it! I can go get help.”
“Get Azar. Tell him that Carraphim needs help.” He pulled uselessly at his trapped fetlock again and groaned softly. “Let him know I’m not hurt.”
“Carraphim? Oh that’s such a cool name!! I’m Flicker!” He seemed awfully excited to finally be exchanging names with his new friend. “Ok Carraphim! I’ll uh. Goooo get Azaaar?” He repeated the name. “I’ll get Azar! And tell him you’re not hurt, but you need help. Got it!”
He bounded off without even giving Carraphim a chance to reply then, hopping right across the log and rocketing back the way he’d come from. The dun noted how much duller everything became again after he left, trapped down in this mud pit. Goodness, he’d never have done this if he hadn’t been following that-
There was the negativity. He stopped the train of thought before it made it any farther, and instead stared up at the sky. It would be clear today. That meant it’d be nice and sunny. Nice… nice and warm…. Especially after such a cold winter. This mud was an excuse to roll in some nice green grass. His trapped fetlock was an excuse for Azar to stay close and talk to him. It was all okay. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, giving himself a chance to reset for now. It was all okay… All okay…
“Carraphim??” Azar’s voice brought him back to reality, and he slowly shifted his gaze back up to him. He flicked one ear forward, then the other. “Oh god are you okay? What happened?” He stepped carefully up towards the log, and leaned over to try to get a closer look at how he was trapped. Carraphim watched on ever so calmly.
Flicker was the one to pipe up far before the trapped stallion was even able to make a sound. “He was chasing me! It was so fun! I ran, and then he’d catch me, and I’d run and he’d laugh!” He demonstrated alongside the ditch, and Carraphim couldn’t help but find himself smiling fondly again. Azar looked almost like he couldn’t believe it. Not until he glanced down to see the dun smiling dumbly back up at the little colt.
“Carraphim? Smiling? Laughing?” Azar chuckled, stepping cautiously out onto the log. He reached a hoof down carefully to place weight on the branch that had Carraphim’s foot trapped. “Are we sure that the sky’s not falling?”
That just made Flicker giggle again, and he bounced where he stood waiting for his friend to be freed. The branch cracked, and then snapped off. Azar righted himself and balanced cautiously on the log as he backed off of it, then waited patiently for Carraphim to get up from above. Slowly but surely, the dun managed to clamber back up the slope, nothing short of a muddy disaster. He was all too eager to go and rub his side up against Azar, who gasped and jumped away from him.
“H-hey!!” He was smiling despite the inconvenience, his face lighting up and eyes bright like little stars. “I don’t want your mud!” He shoved him back, and Carra popped up on his hind legs just to spin away from him. Flicker jumped right up close to the gigantic stallion with his head held high and tail flagged. Carraphim turned his head to look back at his leader, who was watching the two contently.
“Yes, he can stay.” the grey stallion chuckled, smiling fondly at the pair. He’d already forgotten about the mess on his entire white shoulder from Carraphim, it seemed. He paid it no mind. He was just watching the two almost proudly. “But no more log climbing. Or muddy ditches.”
“Yes sir!” Flicker chirped.
“He doesn’t have a family?” Carra looked surprised. How had he lost his herd? His heart throbbed at the thought and his expression fell.
“He does now.” Was all the response that Azar gave him, smiling sweetly back at the foal, then glancing up at the dun again. That alone urged a small, painful looking smile from Carraphim as he glanced back up at his leader. He just nodded once to him in agreement.
“He does now.”
WORD COUNT: 3,196
Stallion: Azar #145
In response to: This Comment: Get Stuck, Find Foal
Art features: Carraphim , Flicker
Story features: Azar #145, Carraphim , Flicker
Word Count: 3,196
Aging: N/A
Healing: N/A
Pregnancy: N/A
Items Used: None
Companion Animals: None
Members that Own Outside Horses: N/A
Other Notes: Carraphim found his lighttttt 
Related content
Comments: 17
Thank you!!
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Feathers: 150
Eggs: 1
Carraphim has become injured from getting stuck. A tiger lurks around the bachelor herd..
Events: + Injured (Carraphim 0/2), + Encounter Predator (Tiger), + Items
Items: Blueberries - These small faded blue berries will guarantee a colt will be born once used on the final pregnancy image.
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My heart ;w;
Lil sweet Carra coming out now eeeee
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Yessssss this freaking event was a blessingggggggg
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I squealed when I rolled it I was like Y E S
Carra needs something good poor boy ;w;
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I wish I had the answer to that question-
Hurting myself too don't mind me //COUGHS
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We can get through this T^T
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Thank youuu!!
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HECK ARENT THEY????
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it's sO CUTE HFFHHG
and like the sunny lighting SLAYS ME
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AH gosh same and it was an afterthought XD I really didn't think it was going to turn out as nice as it did but it added so much to the piece. I was so glad I tried it!
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