These Hallowed Halls [Open]

[Rhap§]

Tiercel _________________

He had not ventured back to this place, these lands, in years. Since the moment his family had fled the safety of their paradise refuge, Tiercel had seen Oneca only in his dreams. No more. The up and coming bachelor had made the long pilgrimage from the Badlands to Oneca on determination alone, refusing to stop for adequate rest along his way. Not until the air had become heavy with the jungle's ambrosial scents had the stallion been able to release himself from the single minded, fiendish drive that had pushed him to his birthplace.

He'd been so young when they had left. Terribly, terribly young. But even still, the hawk eyed youngster had been shown one grand beauty of the land before his family had departed. Magena Cove. At the time, it had seemed an impossibly perfect place. Tiercel could remember thinking that his family should just stay within the confines of the cove permanently. And why not? It had taken even his experienced sire three passes before they'd been able to find the entrance! In his youthful mind, Tiercel had felt certain that all the uncertain whisperings, the fear for Queen Kawena, could all have been stopped if she had but taken refuge in that safe domain. Of course, these were but the simplistic musings of a colt and now, with the wisdom of the maturity he had only recently happened upon, he knew that would not have been any good. Had Kawena hidden away, it would have betrayed cowardice and sent the herd spiraling into a panic. Instead, the Queen had stayed right where she was, bravely waiting as the seemingly inevitable march of death made it's way to her door.

Pushing his tall but relatively slight frame through the thick jungle growth, the night cloaked male contemplated his understated return. Perhaps he should have gone to the heart of the former herd's common area. He might have run into a few distantly familiar faces. Perhaps there would be others like him, those who had been foals at the time of the great blood bath, foals that had escaped with a parent or guardian and who had returned as he had. They were but bits of wreckage in the wake of a sinking ship, just barely staying afloat. But to what purpose? To float aimlessly about? No, not he. So it was that Tiercel had endeavored to return now, unannounced, so as to avoid running into someone he might recognize, someone who was stuck in the limbo that this place had become. He could not tolerate those that wandered aimlessly. Tiercel needed purpose. He required it as much as air or water or food. To simply exist had never and would never be enough.

After several hours spent searching, the stallion sucked in a deep breath, his nostrils flaring as, at long last, he found the small crevice he had been in search of. It was smaller now than it had seemed to him as a spindly-legged colt. He had to duck to enter, and moved slowly, keeping his head down and tucked away from the rocky expanse above. He walked like this until he was able to straighten his posture, lifting his head to eye the wonders that he had felt would certainly not be waiting for him. It seemed impossible that the cove could equal up to the memories he had of it. The stallion had thought that certainly his coltish imagination had built up the cove to something far greater than the reality. But if it was at al possible, the cove was more beautiful than he remembered and he felt his heart thumping loudly in his chest at the notion that he had once stood here with his family, the family that, for all he knew, could be long since dead. The bachelor's dark eyes glimmered as he moved forward slowly, reverently, taking it all in with a joy too profound to put into words.

He was home.

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