You're Stuck With Me | Private

Outlaw tried to focus on the path in front of him, but his mind wandered back where he was standing and beyond there. Coming to a halt to attempt to collect himself he remembered how that day the flames had climbed into the clouds and licked at all the lush scenery that was once fertile Exile land, alive with all kinds of plant and animal life. Those images clouded his head and mixed with the ones actually in before his eyes, causing his heart to start racing a bit faster as if the fire was still raging on before him. With a shake of his head, his warm eyes refocused and he sighed to himself. The fire had happened not long after he had joined the Exiles, but he still felt the deep loss the Herd experienced. 'I'll go find a few mares to mingle with when I get back..that'll get my mind off—'
Suddenly, hoofbeats reached his ears, although they were rather soft. Before he could turn to see if it was an angelic mare coming to comfort him, he heard a deep voice asking a question. With ears pricked, Outlaw turned around to see who he was speaking to. His reply was relaxed, despite the intensity of the thoughts that were growing smaller in his mind. "Yes, I am. But I'm a bit newer here so you may have not seem much of me so far. I'm Outlaw." The gentle look in his eye and his warm smile was affable, despite the high contrast and strange pattern of markings as well as how his forelock fell over one eye. While speaking and waiting for a reply, his gaze flicked across the stranger's form quickly only to find that...this horse wasn't a complete stranger. Outlaw had seen this stallion before, he'd remember those dark markings anywhere. They were a bit similar to his own, he noticed. He must've had some Paint in him somewhere down the line. His stance was also relaxed as he felt the warm breeze touch him.

(343)

By now any darkness that was clouding Outlaw's mind was long hidden from even himself as his face lit up into a brighter expression. High Guard! That's where he'd seen Prophet before. The taller stallion was busy when Outlaw first saw him, so he had gone to converse with another horse at the time.
"Thank you, Prophet. I'm grateful to be here." He saw Prophet's gaze flick across the ashen land but for the sake of not wanting to feel down again, his own eyes didn't follow. Upon being asked where he was from, he smoothly replied, "I was a Loner, and it was great at first. I had no one to pledge my allegiance to but myself." He shifted his weight onto one hind leg since there was no sign of danger before continuing. "But after awhile something didn't feel right about it, so I came here. Your leader was kind enough to let me in, and I'm proving that that wasn't a mistake." Outlaw finished his little story nicely, but made no mention of his Bachelor heritage. It wasn't something he talked about too readily since he wasn't terribly proud of it, and most horses seemed satisfied with the bit he told. Even when the wind blew, he lowered his head in a certain way so that his right eye was never exposed. Hopefully the same thing would get by with Prophet, but Outlaw felt like he could be honest...the High Guard seemed very approachable to him.

(250)

When the taller stallion divulged that he too had been a Loner in his life, his black tipped ears pricked forward and his one visible eyebrow rose slightly in surprise. Sure the two had hailed from different birth herds, but once they started growing up they seemed to have a really similar state of mind. That was something Outlaw definitely wasn't used to having with anyone at all, perhaps because of his lack if support of his birth herd making him a bit of a pariah in a respect, or just because...he was very strange. In a good, unique way most of the time that brightened others' days when they needed it.

"Olde, hmm? Well at least you're here now and you've clearly set yourself up for a prosperous life." The shorter stallion nodded in agreement, causing the scratch-like markings gracing his neck to look like they were rippling. "You've said it there, Prophet. We're all survivors of something, and there's no way to lighten the load like having others at your shoulder who can understand what you've been through." As far as years went, Outlaw wasn't all that new to the Exiles. But since he was just a smiling face to most everyone, not many bothered to try to befriend him. His smoothly dodging their advances could also help with that, but deep down he was very reserved when making actual friends. Seeing smiles and obtaining warm touches from the mares was enough to hold the thought that there was a darkness in his heart at bay...at least for short whiles at a time. It would get obvious that he was thinking about this void in him or any other stressful topic that was difficult to cope with wearing a smile when, at times like this, he'd fade away from the rest of the Herd to be alone. For some reason, no one in the herd could recollect what the warm eyed stallion looked like when he wasn't grinning and tossing his mane like a colt or trying to look 'cool' for the mares.

Not to say that he wasn't happy with the herd of Exiles, he was. Even after the fire, he was still one of the more optimistic horses in the herd. "I do, I do. Everyone is so respectful here, and different too. No one is completely like someone else, which makes getting to know everyone less boring." A soft chuckle shook his shoulders and ended in a soft sigh. Under his breath, he spoke mostly to himself, "The Bachelors definitely aren't like that."

The question made the Guard's breath catch in his throat and his eyebrows almost disappear beneath his thick, black forelock. Prophet either noticed how surprised the other strangely marked stallion was by the question, or had been trying to refrain from asking it at all because as soon as the words left his mouth, the taller stallion was giving him an undeniably understanding look. It wasn't warm and soft per say, but strong and supportive. This kind of behavior was something that the older stallion had rarely been around in his life, but you could tell he admired and needed it by the way his disarmingly cheerful attitude melted right away. Under that steady gaze, Outlaw felt safe. A real, genuine smile spread across his lips and his gentle brown eye gleamed in the light of the sun.

"Well it seems that you can see right through me already. So I might as well show you." The pale stallion chuckled and tossed his head in a way so that when his forelock fell, both of his deep brown eyes were staring back into Prophet's. There was no X on his forehead, however. Without hesitation but without seeming rushed, Outlaw's romanized head turned a bit so his normally hidden eye was more visible. A rather clean-cut X resided there over his eye and although it held no cloudiness to indicate blindness, it did have damage from the marking. Blinking a few times to adjust the newly visible eye to the light, he replied, "I was raised a Bachelor like you had been raised in Olde. It's not something I'm proud to be, but it's who I am."

With a swish of his tail, his gaze flicked all around them to take everything in. He could still see through his forelock, but nothing was as clear as this. It felt liberating to feel a breeze on the full of his face, and his body relaxed from it's tense position. "Not exactly a beauty mark but..." the pale shoulders rose and fell again with a helpless grin. "The mares find it interesting I guess. So it can't be that bad." Once again his gaze fell on Prophet, but from this light it gave the Guard a rather tired look as if he hadn't been sleeping well for days. "Where are yours from? There must be a good story behind those." With his black nose he gestured to the scars on the other stallion's neck. Outlaw loved to listen to stories from others' pasts despite the fact that he only divulged his own to a select few horses, which Prophet was now one of.