` sons of liberty {strider}

[Hattie]

Shay was in a grim mood, not uncommon after a trip to the mountains and certainly not aided by the freezing drizzle that had lingered since early morning. It chilled him to the bone, soaking his hide and plastering his hair to his sides so that what body heat he was able to muster rolled ineffectually off his back in plumes of steam. For sometime Shay had fought to ward off the frigid weather by walking but a glimpse of Kalf Lake through the barren trees had drained him of all motivation to go on. The mousy stud was now stationary after having closed the distance between himself and the lake, contemplating scene before him from the ineffectual shelter of a winter bare elm.

His mother wouldn't have liked it. "Too dark." she'd say "Too dreary." and yet, it suited him. There was something in the physical discomfort that echoed his sensation of exile and somehow soothed him.

Perhaps it was just the chance to stare blankly across the churning water that appealed to him. No room for thought here, no room to mull over that which he was forbidden... Just the patter of rain and the sight of millions ripples as it fell in curtains across the lake, mind numbing in their endlessness.

[Strider]

- S T E R L I N G -

Sterling's opinion of rain changed with the passing of the seasons or, sometimes, with even the passage of days. Having grown up in the Far North, it wasn't often that it actually rained - rather, snow predominated. In some cases, he preferred it. Although snow brought cold, it didn't soak his hide as quickly as rain did and being wet in freezing temperatures did little to keep one alive.

At the moment, he hardly liked it at all.

It was his fault, he supposed, that he had decided to make his first trip to Kalf Lake during the winter season. He had heard tell of how beautiful it was during the spring, when life was just beginning to bloom, and how refreshing it was during the summer, when its cool waters refreshed tired and hot souls. But it wasn't on accident that he had chosen the coldest time of the year to pay the large body of water a visit. Sterling loved the cold weather and thought that, maybe, the lake would have been completely frozen over; he had seen little ponds frozen over, but never anything bigger. And, to his disappointment, it wasn't.

Squinting his eyes against the rain he cantered swiftly to the tree with the largest canopy he could see. His hooves splashed in the muddy earth, dirtying his legs and clumping his feather against his ankles, until he finally made it to the sheltering boughs of the trees. Not that they were all that much help. Unlike in the Far North, where many of the trees were Evergreen, most of the flora here seemed to drop their leaves with the turn of the weather. Shaking his body to rid it of as much water as he could, the silver stallion shivered before casting his eyes out over the lake.

At first all he saw was the monotone colors that the rain created. All the color that he had imagined had once been there was desaturated by the stormy weather. Sterling noted the way the sheets of rain blanketed the water, creating vast drop patterns across the surface with each wave. In a way, it seemed orchestrated - and beautiful. He stared out across the lake for some time before he finally noticed the dark grey figure that was apparently doing the same as he was. Sterling tilted his head, wondering why he hadn't seen the stranger earlier.

For a moment he watched the other horse but, when it didn't move, Sterling's eyes began to droop with exhaustion. He continued to watch the strange figure until darkness encompassed him and he fell asleep.

OOC: Meh.

[/size][/font]