Vonen kicked his tail over a little, and grumbled to himself. This wind wasn't going to let up, was it? The dark skies were foreboding, something was up. Something big. His tribe had been wandering around in their valley for the last few months noticing the signs of change. But what kinds of change?
The wind also brought the scent of predators, and that was causing enough trouble as it was. It would rain again, there was the sound and smell of it on the wind already. Meaning that the tribe would be caught unawares if a group of lions or coyote came around for them.
Not on Vonen's watch.
He strode up to the chief. A pure white horse with greyish blue eyes, and the palest of platinum-golden mane and tail, he was not a big horse but by all means he carried a kind of power with him that made everyone in the tribe respect him. "N'gel," Vonen said with a nicker, "there will be trouble coming."
The white steed man nodded once, "yes, I can smell it too. Is there anything you can do about this?"
"No," Vonen said, "But I can protect us once we're together. Only if the tribe is near one another."
"Then I will get the warriors and you go gather your harem." N'gel said that with a grin, because it was technically his harem. But for all the world, it looked like Vonen had stolen the hearts of at least half the tribe's females. That didn't mean they couldn't share - they were civilized people.
The dark-furred and ebon maned male went down into the valley nooks, seeing a number of the younger colts play-fighting. He gave a whistling call, and their long ears perked up. "Time to go - head toward the leaning stone!" They scampered away, collecting large sticks on the way for a fire.
More and more of the tribe came along, and Vonen counted heads. Without the warriors, and the few females that N'gel counted among his personal guard, everyone was accounted for. "Remain here, put up the shelters on the east face, the storm will hit soon. Go ahead and build a fire or two, on the south-west face. Keep the children there, don't let them stray." He told the elder women, and they immediately complied.
Then Vonen set out to find his chief again. He was rewarded immediately, seeing the group of warriors and guards that the pale horse always had around him. First and foremost was X'lex, the huge dark-furred male with the short bobbed mane and cut off tail. His eye too had been ruined in a fight with one of the predators, but with the magic that was inherant to Vonen's profession he was able to make a deadened eye see once more. And perhaps it was no coincidence that with that magical eye on some other horse man, Vonen himself could see through it to the warriors view.
Looking over everyone had its advantages.
Next to X'lex, though, were the pair of buckskin and cream L'paz and I'lani - rarely separate, and I'lani one of the few females who had decided that Vonen just wasn't 'for her'. Her partner was alert, thoughtful, and just as dangerous as Vonen himself. Probably because I'lani was his mate... She was vicious in battle, and it was because of that that N'gel allowed her to fight.
D'jarmin was the tall, lanky blood-bay colored male, leader of a small group of younger male warriors. He coordinated them well, but he more enjoyed sprinting along and clipping at enemies than shouting out orders.
And then... There were B'rinna and D'varan. N'gel's personal guards, and lovers to them both. And probably each other, the way they held together. B'rinna was a red-spotted apaloosa in color, with oddly crinkly mane and tail in a brilliant orange-red. D'varan... was the skinniest healthy female Vonen had ever seen, and he'd seen some skinny females. Scarred from battles, as opposite B'rinna as she could be, D'varan often spoke of having a too-long memory. She remembered things that she ought not to have, perhaps from other lives. She knew things about Vonen that no one else did - things he'd confessed in her presence and not even N'gel knew.
The love that the women had for him, N'gel and each other kept them close. It was that love that Vonen used now, to strengthen the bond between leaders and warriors, and between them and the group they protected back at the leaning stone.
X'lex saw them first, therefore Vonen saw them shortly after: A group of coyote armed to the teeth with their blunt-ended clubs and stone tipped spears. Resourceful, dangerous in groups, these little wolf-cousins were not much to look at. But when they were set on some goal, they would hardly stray from it until they'd finished or been driven away.
Today, they would have to be driven away. They looked hungry, wet, angry.
"Someone's pushed them out of their territory," B'rinna said mysteriously, she always seemed able to speak the truth no matter how little she knew the subject. "They aren't looking just for food. They want our territory."
"Then they will have to fight for it," N'gel said calmly, in that way he had that always caused almost everyone to prick their ears up and focus. "Are the defenses up?"
"Almost, I needed to know what enemy was approaching," Vonen said. "I will be doing that now. You may start whenever you're ready."
The warriors turned back to N'gel, who began to lead their organized defense. Then, Vonen looked up at the leaning stone, concentrating.
The rain had begun, so he worked with that. Dry inside, wet outside... The pressure system he erected around the stone was complicated. It had to adjust every few seconds, because of the strong winds. Eventually Vonen would be able to manipulate the winds themselves, but he didn't much care for them now. Instead he erected a kind of wall of solid air. It let in light and sound, somehow, and kept the stone and its immediate area dry and warm. But outside it, the rain would bluster all it liked against the shield, causing a near-impenatrable mess of splattering water. No coyote in its right mind would come near that.
He hoped that the coyotes were in their right minds...
***
Later, with the capture of the leader of the ragged band of coyotes, N'gel required a new kind of assistance from his outlander mage. "He refuses to speak, even to me," N'gel said to Vonen, as the rains cleared and the sky grew sparkling with stars. "I'd like you to get the information of who has removed them from their territory, and whether they'd be willing to make a deal."
Vonen nodded. He was adept enough at threats - everything he learned over his life could come to the surface when he needed it to. Techniques that were used on him, tortures and pleasures both, were his to command.
This time, he simply stomped up to the ragged coyote, whose ear was torn and muzzle still bloody.
"I think you've been beaten enough," Vonen said. "So I won't hurt you any more than you've been." That seemed to elicit a glimmer in the coyote's eyes. "We just want to ask you who moved you out," he continued. That killed the spark.
Odd.
"Whatever it was, threatened you more than we do, didn't they?" Vonen said, kneeling down to the coyote's level, who was tied to a tree stump. "Either they can harm you from a distance, which I doubt, or they've done so much harm that you fear being sent back to them."
At that, the coyote jerked a little.
"We won't send you back. Not if you can live around here without hurting anyone," Vonen announced. The wounds of the others were being tended, albeit grudgingly, by the horse women. The group of bedraggled canines had to endure the mocking taunts of the young colts, while their leader was being questioned.
"Can't go back," the coyote said quietly. "Can't go back. They'll eat us, damn cannibals..."
"The cougars," Vonen asked, and the coyote nodded once. "Well they won't come near us unless they launch a whole attack. They know our strengths are bigger than theirs."
"Muscle won't stop these ones," the coyote said. "They've got magic, or something."
Vonen narrowed his eyes, "really." Something dark and scary crept into his gut. He was going to regret asking: "did you get a good look at them?"
"Yes, before they sent us away. They said they wanted something, but ..."
"Didn't tell you it was your land until it was too late." Vonen said, and the coyote nodded sadly. "The ... tell me about them. How many, who led them?"
Reluctantly, the coyote began talking. He told of a group of perhaps a dozen, maybe a couple more in the wings, mostly young males. Led by an older male, scary strong, blond haired in addition to his fur.
Vonen straightened and had to steel his own will. "And his eyes? Did you see his eyes?"
"Green, like that cloud," the coyote nodded with his pointed nose at a stormy-underlit cloud. Silvery green, the color of algae in stone.
The color of Djiel's eyes.
With a critical and sudden pose, Vonen cleaned up the coyote's ear wound, and dabbed at his nose bleed. He untied the coyote and helped rub some feeling back into his paws. "Go to N'gel, now. Gather your group."
Vonen couldn't help but stare up at the sky. Such beautiful eyes, Djiel had. So beautiful and angry, hurtful. Selfish.
N'gel approached a moment later, "well?"
"We need to help them, and we need to... I ..." He looked away, his dark mane obscuring his even darker expression. N'gel knew something was wrong anyway. Vonen felt a sound, warm hand on his elbow, and saw B'rinna there beside him. She was so short and squat compared to him, he almost laughed. But it came out choked. Shortly on his other side, D'varan appeared. They could always tell when he was distressed. Memories like his should be best laid to rest - somehow.
Before they led him away to relieve him of some of his stress, Vonen said to N'gel, "it's Djiel, he's got a group of males working for him, probably under his spells. Be careful, N'gel. ... I can't... I can't fight him. I never could."
That was the truth, and it was a hard one. He'd fought back, yes, but as for confrontation? He'd never been able to successfully confront the cougar man. Hunted, scarred on the inside, abused, Djiel had done everything in his power to make Vonen behave the way he wanted him to. But no matter how you slice it, a horse and a cougar cannot remain together too long. Especially not in the wild southwest...
***