Like a Common Horse [Finished]

[FlyingPanther]

"I like to toss my head about and hold it as high as any horse; but fancy now yourself, if you tossed your head up high and were obliged to hold it there, and that for hours together, not able to move it at all, except with a jerk still higher, your neck aching till you did not know how to bear it. Besides that, to have two bits instead of one -- and mine was a sharp one, it hurt my tongue and my jaw, and the blood from my tongue colored the froth that kept flying from my lips as I chafed and fretted at the bits and rein. It was worst when we had to stand by the hour waiting for our mistress at some grand party or entertainment, and if I fretted or stamped with impatience the whip was laid on. It was enough to drive one mad."

Many carts were parked in the area, the coachmen gathered around, taking and laughing their selves to tears. The horses and carts were tied to fashionable posts, sparkling silver with the head of it in the shape of a horse. There were all sorts of horses there, single and teamed, draft and thoroughbred, black and white, chestnut and paint. It seemed like a rather fashionible place to tie off one's horses while one meandered through Capital City for the day. But probably the most striking of all the horses tied in the massive 'parking lot' was not even a horse at all, but a Horse.

The golden Mare stood at ready, hooked up to a relatively massive white carrage, that probably should have been pulled by two instead of just her lonesome. Her golden pelt glimmered like flames, and her long black mane shown like black silk in the midday sun. She did not speak, or move, or do much of anything. Aside from the occational twitch to get flies off her, and unsuccessful flicks of her fashionibly cut short tail, she didn't move much at all. Her head was held up, probably far to high, with a check-rein, which ropes tightened slightly with a sound every time she took a breath. But probably what was the most intreguing aspect of the mare, was her looks. One could tell right away that she was by no means a common horse, but the Ace of Clubs branded into her chest would always doom her to an exsistance no better then one.

I might as well be one., she often thought to herself, especially on days when her neck ached more then usual. I could at least take the hellish thing off. I'd probably be treated a lot better to. Oh how there were days she longed to have been born a common animal. But that was always her Torquehelm half talking. There was also her Yarrow side, which acted often like a stubburn and abused animal, biting and kicking when it had the chance.

Which side seemed to be governing her thoughts today, at this very moment, was unknown. She was quiet, and subserviant, much like her broken Torquehelmite self, but behind the eye sheilds her expression was clearly one that seethed hatred, pain, and anger, much like her Yarrow self.

Aces were not a rarity for cart pullers, but today Ginger was the only one around.

[Kitty]

The equines were not alone, in fact ginger was not a lone card at all, well, in one way. Tavor had developed a great love of horses during his life in the city and was here now, waiting for the last card to leave before he came out of his hiding spot in some shrubbery. He strode out confidently, a smile firmly planted on his muzzle as he came over to the gathered horses, some of which he recognized as regulars here, others were new.

He approached one, an older mare with a beautiful chestnut coat and laughed softly as she nudged him with her nose, looking for a treat. He wiggled a carrot out from under his wing and his smile broadened as she munched on it happily. That's when he caught sight of a mare he'd never seen before and my... wasn't she gorgeous! He moved away from his 'friend' and toward the beacon of gold when something caught his eye, something on her chest. He froze, bristling slightly, she was a card! Suddenly all the mistreatment he received seemed less as he looked her over, bound cruelly she was to.

He moved closer and peered up at her with inquisitive blue eyes before speaking softly, a small quaver in his voice.

H-Hello?

He stayed where he was, interested in seeing if she was able to speak or not, he'd never met an Ace before, but he'd heard things on the streets about them.

[FlyingPanther]

Ginger sighed slightly, as the day became a bit hotter then was normal in the city. The sun was now in it's highest point in the sky, and it was beginning to make the mare sweat slightly. Great, now she was going to smell like a dirty pack mule. And as if that wasn't the worst of it, for Murmur would surely make some comment on the smell upon her return, but the sweat tended to collect between her skin and the leather of her bindings, causing her skin to itch horribly. With a bit of a noise she itched her side with a back hoof. She stopped however when her hoof accidentily pulled the leather strip back a bit, which caused the baring rein attached to it to be pulled, and consequently caused her head to be raised a bit higher. She let out a short shirl whinny before she put her foot down. That smarted...

Her condition made her angry, and she grounded her teeth a bit, his eyes seeming to burn with anger. It was then that a small card child found it's way in front of her. Her dark purple eyes stared at the creature. Great, now she had a little kid that was going to come pester her and make her feel even more like a non-sentiant. Just what she needed. She hoped that Murmur would be on her way soon. But then a curious thing happened.

Did it actually just say hello? She wondered for a moment what to do. If she talked to it, that ment it was going to stick around and pester her. But the way he looked at her, full of remorse. Maybe he wasn't going to be the kind of kid to pull on her hair and throw rocks at her like some of them enjoyed doing. But still she was unsure if she should speak. Her eyes would probably give away the fact that she was sentiant, but she tried anyway, to play it off as if she wasn't. She snorted much like a horse would, and waited to see what would happen.

[Kitty]

He cringed slightly when she pulled her own head back further, it looked uncomfortable enough to begin with, much less so when it was made worse. A part of him wished to croon to her like he did to the others, but he remembered the mark on her chest, and now he saw her intelligent eyes, and he knew it would be rather demeaning to do so. He did, however, delight in the fact that she seemed not to scoff at his presence, most did. The rot on his rump and the club on his chest certainly ensured that his life wouldn't be pleasant, but he was a rather humble soul and tried not to take it personally.

She didn't answer though, and he wondered if she simply couldn't speak... or if she was ignoring him purposely. No, not ignoring, she'd looked at him hadn't she? Well, if she couldn't pseak... perhaps she'd like some company until her 'master' came and shooed him away? He looked up at her again and smiled brightly. He moved over a bit and shimmied up a post near her and balanced himself atop it, curling his feather tipped tail around it for balance.

You know, I haven't seen you around here before, you're rather quite... pretty you know. Have you been to the capitol before?

He would continue to speak to her as if she could respond, regardless of whether she could speak or not. If she seemed angered by his presence he'd probably leave, but he still held hope that he might hear a voice. He even flushed softly under his fur at his own comment of her beauty, he'd said it confidently enough but he just couldn't help but blush.

[FlyingPanther]

Had Ginger been anyone but herself, she might have been discusted by the rotting flesh of the child, as well as the club. She herself wasn't exactly fond of lowlanders, there had been one that had tried to take advantage of her while she was tied up much like this at one point in her life, but her coachman came back before anything could really happen. She had also managed to get in one or two painful kicks. Teaches one to attempt to come behind a horse....But this child was just that, a child, and it didn't look as if he was fully Lowlander. Even beyond that, even if their leopracy was contagious, there was a part of Ginger that wished for death in any way shape or form. It might have been the Torquehelmite side. And she really couldn't discriminate when it came to rank. I mean...shes' an Ace of Clubs....there really wasn't anything worse then that.

She watched as the young creature climbed his way up the pole. Ginger let out another snort, one that might have been a mixture of a sigh and annoyance, as the young child looked up and smiled at her. Desite herself, the child was a cute one. And he wasn't really treating her poorly. Well...she supposed she could spare a word or two...

"My Master comes here often, so yes I have visited the Capital." she said in responce. She decided not to address the compliment. Things like that were just awkward...and she was aware she was goodlooking. Hell it's the reason she got into the trouble throughout her life that she had. Her reason for being a slave. It had saved her, but it had also ruined her.

[Kitty]

At her words Tavor nearly fell of his precarious little perch, but he quickly spread his wings for balance and dug his claws into the wood. He very much did not want to fall, he was a bit of a clutz from time to time but really, it didn't need to be that evident.... did it? He flushed more deeply this time around and gave her a sheepish, somewhat embarrassed smile. He was so socially awkward that it should have hurt....

Oh, I must not come here at the right times then!

He had a bit of awe in his features as he watched her, but he looked away, knowing full and well that gawking was rude, and annoying, and he chastised himself for it. However, he looked back and a genuinely friendly smile lit his features, replacing the sheepish one from before.

Can I get you anything? It's a rather warm afterno-

He'd gotten comfortable again and had loosened his grip with his claws and promptly he fell from the post. He grabbed wildly for it with his claws paws but to no avail, he landed flat on his back with a thud and something akin to a groan and simply stayed there a moment with the wind knocked out of him. So much for not embarrassing himself ...

[FlyingPanther]

Ginger watched as the small winged rat card stuggled to keep himself on the slippery perch. His movements were akin to those of real rats. It was interesting to watch, she had not actually met a rat card yet, though she knew they exsisted. The only rats she ever knew of were the ones that sometimes sheltered themselves in her stall when it rained. At first she used to be afraid of them, and used to try to stomp them if she could. But no matter how much she had done that, they seemed to always and forever be crawling out of the woodworks. So long as they didn't bite her, she wouldn't hurt them anymore. If you can't beat them, join them.

"I think you are probably right." she said with a flick of her shortly cut tail, to try to scare off a particularly annoying bug that kept biting at her rump...but to no avail. She sighed a little bit. She wished that Murmur would let her grow her tail a little longer....but no. It was fashionible the way it was....and...well...allowed for...easier access. She snorted at the thought.

It was just then that the small ratling had lost his battle with the pole, falling on his back upon the hard ground. Ginger looked, not really shocked or feeling two ways about it...but indeed curious as to if the little thing hadn't severely hurt himself. "The pole is probably slippery from horse spit. You should be careful."

[Kiki]

She wandered through the streets looking for something to do while Father was away; as she walked around she noticed a funny little lowlander that she suddenly recognized. Dilis watched as Tavor was talking to the horse....odd, she looked like a normal horse that had no way of communicating... ah well.. He was riding the cart rather well until THUD he hit the ground. She ran over quickly to make sure he was alright.

"Oh my Tavor! Are you alright? That was quite the spill you took." She helped him up and then turned back to the horse he was riding, surprised that it turned out she was in fact capable of talking.

"Hi, my name is Dilis and you are?" She smiled, she always did enjoy meeting other cards; not many people talked to her in Avington so it was a relief to her when she could meet others in Capital City.

[Kitty]

[[ He was on a post, nothing more luff. =3 ]]

He laid there a moment, spread eagle in the dirt, his head swimming a bit. Well, that certainly had hurt, hadn't it? He'd keep a mental note that sitting on posts didn't go well, and the resulting crash was quite painful, to your body AND your ego. His clawed toes twitched as his breath came back with a groan.

He was surprised to hear the equine ask what she did, but it warmed him a bit and his previous smile returned to his muzzle, a sure sign that the youth was perfectly alright, or would be.

That.... wasn't very smart was it?

And then a familiar blur of yellow and green, with a familiar voice was fussing over him and, after initially being alarmed, he calmed down once more giving the feline a warm smile as well. Oh! how very unexpected!

I think.... I bruised my pride more then anything.... Dilis, this is.....

He paused, realizing he hadn't asked the lovely mare's name yet and peered over at her, blushing once again.

I'm sorry, my name is Tavor.... what might yours be?

The little rat eagle crossed sat up fully now, feeling much better except for a dull throbbing pain in his head, he hadn't noticed hitting that, but whatever. It was nothing major and thus would be ignored, he was in the presence of his favorite sort of people, the kind ones. Even if most didn't consider Ginger a person, Tavor did. He wasn't really the conventional card anyhow...

[FlyingPanther]

The mare's purple eyes watched intently as the rat regained himself. At first she was sure that he had hurt himself quite a great deal. Boy did she really not want to have to explain this to her cartdriver or Murmur. While she was...well...apathetic towards lowlanders, she knew that her cartdriver and Murmur were probably less inclined to accept them. When he did finally recover though, she was glad. Glad anyway that she didn't have to explain a passed out ratling near her at the very least. She wondered though if she would get a lashing if they thought that she did it. His region might cancel out the punishment that came when she acted like her normal snappish self.

"No. I don't suppose it was." she really didn't know, part of it was the fact that the pole itself was rather slippery, the other part of it was that she wouldn't be going around hoping on top of things...but...most things would break underneath her...

When the feline ran into veiw out of nowhere, Ginger naturally spooked slightly, her whole body jumping slightly. It was not enough to make her rear...but nonetheless when she recovered she was naturally a little upset. She bared her teeth a little, which to any who knew her would be the signal to back off before she bit you...however...she soon found her flared nostrils taking in a rather pleasent scent, one that seemed to calm the fire within her. Not only that, but as the feline spoke to her, she seemed nice enough. Ginger was relatively nice to those who showed her kindness...the few that did.

"My slave name is Ginger." she said with a small twitch upward from the side of her mouth. It was probably her attempt at a joke, but it really wouldn't succed. After all...it was the truth.