by Meera on March 1st, 2012, 5:16 am
It wasn't Patros' first time out into the Grasslands. He had been in this situation before, and his gut was usually right about this sort of thing. Keeping quiet and moving slow would be the best course of action, but the calls of the Glassbeaks were becoming frequent as they marched their horses and Aren walked. Patros was hoping for a quiet first leg of their trip, and was a little surprised that they were likely to encounter something so soon. He frowned at Aren. He liked the man for his personable, talkative nature but right now he just wished Aren would shut up. Could he be serious in thinking he smelled good to the most formidable foe in all of Cyphrus - if not all of Mizahar?
Meera was oblivious to Aren's ramblings, keeping her thoughts mainly to her horse. Patros' horse was a gallant thing that could run to Riverfall from Kenash in two days - or so he had boasted - and Meera was stuck at her snail's pace and it was infuriating. Tempting fate and her skill, she kicked her horse's side to egg it to a trot. It was successful, but it only served to gather Patros' worry which resulted in a sharp sound of his dissapproval.
"Meera!" He sharply whispered to her, but it was of no use. The horse's steps were quick and loud on the green grass, and to catch up with her, Patros had to nudge his horse to match her speed.
"What the petch are you doing, child? Don't you hear? Glassbeaks. Slow down, keep quiet!" He scolded. Meera did not hear, but she also didn't quite know how to slow her horse. Patros pulled up on his rein, to demonstrate. Meera tried to replicate the action, but Miss Filly had no intention of slowing. It seemed Miss Filly and Meera were of a similar mind - it was fun to run!
Meera tried to slow Miss Filly again when she really heard the sound of the large birds, and the horse finally conceded, putting a twenty foot distance between herself and Patros and the blue Akalak.
Glassbeaks grew louder now, and Patros turned his head to search for them. He readied the bow from his back with an arrow and saw one. Perhaps Aren did have some arcane power over the Glassbeaks. Patros cursed as he saw Miss Filly get spooked. The filly certainly had never seen a Glassbeak before, and Meera's face looked ghostly white.
Her horse reared up in its panic. Meera held as best she could onto the yvas, but she was much too small and weak in the change of angle to hold on. Meera was thrown from her horse. It didn't bode well for her future if on her first major trek she was thrown from her ride, but Patros would deal with that later. Most important was getting Meera onto his horse, up and away from Glassbeaks.
Ah! there it was - a red blob bounding across the plains with no real talent for stealth. He fired two arrows, missing both times.
Meera sat on her rear surrounded by tall shards of emerald. She had a child's bow and arrow she was learning, and she mimicked Patros, nocking the arrow in the bowstring. She hadn't nearly the talent nor the skill to quickly aim and draw, so she lined up her shot. The bird was still rather far away, but it was getting closer. She ran down a list of her stance, - realizing she was still sitting down and rather breathless from her fall she had to withdraw the bow to stand. Once her stance was perfected, she raised her bow as Patros fired off another arrow as his horse walked closer to her. She aimed at the bird, coming at the group in a full out run.
"I don't see any others, just the one. This could be alright." Patros assured. He felt it too, in his gut. They would be okay. If anything, they might distract it with the riderless filly. Meera was certainly still small enough ride with Patros when she would tire of walking.
Pavi is in Green, Common is in Default, Tukant is in Blue.