Posted by brz. ZAKR on August 19, 2008, 11:04 am
71.245.170.139
Zakr felt the earth beneath him with great sensitivity, and found the conditions to his liking. The ground was firm but not hard - there was no ice or frost lurking underfoot, and Zakr had had enough of slogging through mud and slush for one season. His earth helped during those times, but he had to concentrate to firm the ground, and he was better off without any distraction. As is his wont, Zakr came without fanfare, without angels blowing trumpets to herald his approach. He came without intimidation, only with the snide attitude permeating the air around him like a cloud of disdain. His stride was a loping canter, his ears flicking lazily in his notorious disaffectedness - without it, he would not be Zakr.
The earthen horse liked being Zakr.
For once, Zakr noticed, he was fighting a horse even older than he. It made him grin. Beyond the age of ten - which was definitely getting up there - the bones become more brittle, the reflexes delayed, the mind slower. If he had any sense of nobility he would not use this to his advantage - but then, this is Zakr you're reading about. He also noticed that he had the advantage of speed, but Char was taller and more agile than him, and maybe a bit stronger. Zakr was not worried. It was not in his nature to care.
He used his speed and the nice footing to his full advantage, careening toward Char from behind, coming too quickly for the old horse to maneuver himself out of the way - Zakr was the picture of epic speed and equal disdain. Just as he looked about to smash his chest into Char's haunches, Zakr pulled himself up, bringing his momentum not to a halt, but instead thrusting it upwards into a rear. Ah, but he had missed rearing - it was an impossible move on anything but a fast track. Zakr drove all of his weight, strength, and remaining momentum into the scarcely-protected convergence of Char's barrel and haunches, just beyond the end of the "fake" ribs, on the right side of his body. It was a pocket of sinew, with little muscle to protect it and no bone to give it structure. Hitting it with such force as Zakr displayed would cause both a limp in the right hind leg and an awful soreness should Char attempt to stretch his barrel in a rear or buck.
Zakr landed, and the earth greeted him kindly, hardly jarring his forelegs as they met the ground. The earth horse, bent on decimating his opponent's right hind leg entirely, followed Char as he undoubtedly made some move to the left, attempting to defend himself against Zakr's first attack. But the palomino followed, using speed and his youth (haha - couldn't ever say that before) to his advantage. He rose again, this time without the momentum of a speedy approach, to strike Char's knee joint, and drag his jagged hooves down the side of his right hind leg, decimating all bone, sinew, tendons, or ligaments that fell beneath his weight. It wasn't the strongest of attacks - Zakr wasn't the strongest of horses - but he made up for the fact by attacking repeatedly, rising and falling, as many times as he could before Char was finally able to escape his grasp.
Zakr backed off, and waited for his inevitable retribution.
earth ii
Message Thread:
« Back to thread