Word Count » 3+
Winter was coming. He could feel it, rising with a platonic and deadly grace from the mountains. It would reach Salsola sooner than it reached the Southern packs, but his people were tough and hardy, and the wild landscape would welcome the oncoming freeze.
After many moons in the saddle, he rode with ease - Not yet will the skill required to master a beast bareback, but with skill regardless. The silvery mare was a moonlit wraith in the pale glow of the chilly day, and small furls of steam rose in elegant spirals from her maw. He wore the bearcoat, its thick weight comfortable and dense. His pelt was thickening, too, although the bitter winter this far North would, in the height of its strength, be able to penetrate even that. As always, twin daggers were strapped to one thigh by well-tanned deer intestines. As the cloak shifted about him like great, dark wings, they revealed their blades like glinting fangs.
The call was unexpected. With a sharp hiss, he urged to mare to a canter. She was steady-footed; not quite as sure as the black stallion had been, but canny and quick regardless. Leaning into the tumultuous flow of her silver mane, the Thistle King rode west to the border, and to the man who waited for him there.
He pulled the horse to a sharp halt once in view, and she snorted, prancing pretty and rolling her eyes nervously at the scents of the foreign beasts. The monarch calmed her with a firm hand, his olive eyes ravenously surveying the figure on horseback that lingered at his border. "Ezekiel," Came the deep purr, and he walked Luna forward, her silver hooves chiming on the odd pebble. They were very near to the river, that which marked entrance to Salsola. Ezekiel had been bold to cross it, but Sirius knew him to be a smart man, and this did not seem like a challenge. Narrowed pupils eyed him suspiciously taking in the two horses, neither of which was the impressive golden mount he remembered. "Did you miss me, then?" That familiar, deadly smile curved at black lips. Although his rival in many ways, there was a strange level of respect between the two men. Sirius, however, was unable to resist the pleasure of teasing his solemn, golden-furred counterpart.
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