SCREEEECCCHHH -splat-

[skiSSors]

__ "So you wanna be great." That's what he said, that's what her father had said to her when she was a young filly. He had been answering a question of her when he had said this but the memory of it had remained in her memory for the rest of her life. She did not know why, it didn't seem particularly important now but in some corner of her mind, she refused to let go of it. She couldn't even remember what she had asked her father, couldn't remember why he would answer in such a strange, almost philosophical way. But even now, at age five she could remember his answer as if it was yesterday. It hadn't been a question, but she remembered her answer and it now sounded strange to her, to think that a young filly had answered in such a manner. "I do and I don't, I don't want to try and be great I want to become great naturally dad." She had said. But she had always been the strange one, even as a newborn she had never complained and never even talked much. She had never gotten along with the other horses, and had always been picked on for her unhealthy look. Not that she wasn't healthy, she had just always been skinny.

__ And she was still skinny. Skinny, long legged, long necked and awkward. Her color was nice, lustrous, and soft. With a different body, she could have been described as beautiful. She certainly had the color for it. With black coat, and her white dappled sides and the her light blue eyes she could have been beautiful. If her mother hadn't been foolish, hadn't been stupid. If her mother had only not climbed that mountain and over exerted herself, she wouldn't have been a premi and then none of this would have happened at all. She would have become her fathers heiress of his herd, she would have been great. But now, She was nothing, worthless really. That's what her mother called her Road Kill because she could have been something alive, and now she was just... dead to her really. This was something Road Kill could never forgive her for. She blamed her mother of course, she didn't have a good reason other than showing off when she went up the mountain and there for ruined her life. But oh well, she could always kill her for it later. She couldn't honestly say she could beat her in a battle right now. Road Kill wasn't very big. At least, she was tall but not brawny. She was nothing more than a skinny little twig as far as she could tell.

__ Ah, but Road Kill couldn't stay in her head forever. She blinked for a moment to clear her vision and surveyed the land before her. It was a clear morning, early enough that the orange rays of the sun dominated the cloudless sky. Her dark coat appeared almost red in the light, and she was sorry to say that it was not an improvement on her usual appearance. She let a hard sigh, and took a few steps forward letting the grass brush against her sides as she moved slowly and carefuly through the meadow. She wasn't heading any where in particular, more of just a general direction of that way. There was nothing but horses in the distance, but not really anything of interest to me. I had to stop for a moment, there was a rustling in the bushes in front of me, and if was a living thing I would have to take care of that. I suppose I was killing for no good reason, other than a sense of remorse and revenge for my cruel name. It was, I could hear it's faint and fast heartbeat. I was frozen, not a single part of me moved as I watched the grass in front of me. I was patient, I always way when I was... hunting. And yes, it must have been ten minutes later when the mouse, for that's what it was, came into my sight. It was oblivious to my presence, which was good. I let it get closer, feeling safe in my shadow. And then. I was fast as a cobra, I lifted a hoof, seeing this all in slow motion. And then my hoof was on the ground, right on top of the furry little animal. The noise of crunching bones sent shivers down my spine, but it was oh so nice. Gave me a pleasure I could not explain, I never could. I lifted my hoof to gaze as the small splatter of blood, bones and other things that dwell inside a living animal. Almost unconsciously, I raised my head and let out a small, but shrill triumphant whinny. Once again I was avenging my name and my life.

[sojourner]

It was just another day. One like a thousand others. Well, maybe that wasn’t quite right. He was starting new today, starting fresh. After coming across circumstances that didn’t agree with him, he’d found a new landscape, and a promising one at that. So no, today wasn’t just like any other, but it wasn’t a unique one either. He had a habit of moving around. Every time things began to get too rough for him, he left, or changed things up. This time, however, things were going to work out for him. For the first time he would get the prizes that he sought. He could be a determined fellow when he wanted to be, and right now was just such a time.

Brushing under a tree, his head jerked up and he grunted. Then he drew in a slow, deep breath and looked over his shoulder. Great. One of the branches had scraped along his back and caught on one of his healing scars, a scar that still oozed clear liquid. He tried to think of them as proud battle scars, but in this case, they were more akin to marks of lessons learned. Lesson one: don’t make enemies in high places if you can help it. They tend to have an uncanny ability to track you down and make your life miserable, even when you’re trying to hide from them. Lesson two: don’t pick on two mares at the same time, especially when you just got finished saving their hides from the local (carnivorous) wildlife and have the marks to show for it. You’re already tired and there’s two of them. No, things are not going to end well for you. Idiot. No, Ari was a quick learner. It only took him a couple scars to realize that something was not a good idea and should be avoided at all costs in the future. However, he had notorious bad luck. Somehow, it didn’t seem to matter how much he tried to avoid trouble, he always wound up in it. Not that he was much of one to avoid trouble in general though.

Suddenly he noticed something stirring in the brush. Curious as to what it was, he moved toward it. What he found was a rather ungainly mare. Wow, she definitely hadn’t had the luck of the draw with genetics. Curling a lip in disgust, he walked away. No, he was starting with a fresh slate, a clean slate. He wasn’t going to drudge the bottom of the barrel for mares. He had his pride, his dignity. Then again.... wasn’t a solid portion of a stallion’s pride how many mares they had under their command? It meant that they’d been able to take them and hold them against other stallions. Numbers were important in the game of power and prestige. Pausing, he looked back toward where he’d seen the mare. Perhaps she was still there? She would never be his trophy mare, but she would do very well as a statistic. Anyway, wasn’t there some sort of civic duty to take in the likes of her? Some sort of charity point? Least ways, that’s probably what a light might think.

Backtracking, he walked into the clearing and discovered that the mare was still there. She was picking up her hoof and Ari glanced down to see what the deal was. “Beautiful,” he groaned. “And killing mice proves... what?” He shook his head at the utter stupidity of it. “Well you loose any genius points you might have had to make up for the looks. Are there any upsides to you?” He wasn’t being as congenial as was his want around strange mares. He could really get pretty low, when you got down to it, sweet talking even the meanest mares in order to get them to see his side of things. He didn’t particularly feel like wasting his breath on this one. If she came along, good and fine, if she balked and decided to hate his guts, it wasn’t a big loss.

[KAFFEINE]

_{xx Greatness was something he shied from rather violently, all too aware of the inevitable and gut wrenching failure that came with striving for the impossible state of perfection. Infamy was a better status to hope for, as little as the electric voltage of hopes and dreams crossed his wretched think tank.
UNFINISHED}