For Sooth, I say my home. [claiming/open][

[.:.Gambler.:.]

Gambler
Gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run...

This was the land I had run ashore, this was the first thing I had known in this forsaken land that I had run aground on. I was not one to call favorites, but I did know one thing: if ever, perhaps, she should return, if ever she had lived and followed me, she would run aground here as well. I had to stay close in case she did. I had to have a place to bury my cards to return to them later if ever I needed to hide them in haste, without fear of them being stolen. I needed what others would call, a home.
Home was a novel concept, as I had never truly had one that belonged to me. Sure, I felt at home when I was with Earl, and I felt home roaming with...her...but never had I actually settled down into a place I referred to as home.
Not that I dwelt on these things. I was quite happy to roam the lands and not be tied down to anything, or necessarily anyone. But it was time to grow up, it was time to lay my proverbial cards on the table and pick a life I chose to live, instead of living others.
I knew, through my odd sense of knowing, that this land was perfect. It was protected by the sea-so not many beasts would be able to attack from that direction. Not saying it was impossible, as many beasts here had strange powers and may, very well, possess the power to walk upon water. The rolling sand dunes would be confusing for the average beast, and would give me and anyone I chose to employ and train, a home field advantage.
Hopefully it would never come down to that, I was not trained well in tactics of war. I could fight well enough if the game so needed, as I had been victorious before. The smell of blood seemed to invigorate me and push me forward until I was standing before the fallen body of the one dumb enough to challenge me. I never, technically however, truly played fair. I was of an average size, but many of the brutes that threw their weight around were far taller than myself, looming over me like the sun. I would resort to attacking their legs-much like dogs I had seen fighting, to break them before they could break me.

My auds twitched to a sound on the wind, but when I turned toward it, I realized it was only the sea lapping at the edge of the terrain. I stared out at the ocean, wondering where ever she had been, where ever she had gone. If she was truly dead, or merely suspended as I was, floating on the water.
Crania shook, and I let loose a steady and commanding whinny-far commanding than I thought my demeanor possessed, claiming this land as my own.

OOC: Not my best post, but twill do. No use wasting muse on a claiming post, eh? If the claim is accepted, I will post rules and ranks. Mainly the terra is for him to have a home base and the Coast seemed to fit his persona.

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[Velnias]

Samantha

Waves, churning over and over. Making me sick to my stomach. Oh, my stomach. How it hurt. Of course, cconsidering I'd only just washed up on some rock I wouldn't normally remember what had happened to me because I'd been unconscious all this time. If there was a sea goddess, I would like my chance to throw a punch at her. A nice kick in the crania would do me well. She let me live, and my baby was dead. Our baby was dead, gone, dead when he came out, cold and blue, blue like the ocean. He had a strange white mark on his forehead, like a tri-folded joker's hat. I suppose, now that I think of it, it was Mother Nature's final hand at nabbing me. I've got you, see, she says. I win!

Bingo.

Blackjack.

Take a gamble on hope and all you lose is your life. I guess if you're me, you don't. You'll lose your life one day, and I thought it was coming right then and there. But I know better now. I could swear that those gods, if there even are any gods, keep me alive just so I can die at the proper time. I swear it, and I loathe it. When he kicked and bit at my stomach, the stallion that pushed Gamble away, I felt the life, the little life, dead in my belly. When he pushed me from the cliff I knew my gamble was gone already, swam away in the ocean, had walked up on a beach somewhere. I screamed on my way down, and closed my eyes. I was reliving my nightmare, except this time, I hit hard water instead of waking up right at the crucial moment. This time I succumbed to the black abyss. When I woke up again I'd somehow stayed afloat, whether the oxygen I'd tried to gulp into my lungs had helped I didn't know. But I know this: I left the baby in the ocean. He'd come early, awakened and panicked by the fall, the pressure, the cold. Gamble didn't know any of this. The other stallion, the one I'd once thought had been right for me, right as rain, my gamble in life, probably had thought the fall killed me. Obviously, he didn't know me that well.

Then I must have drifted away again. I must have collapsed out of exhaustion, or hunger. But I know when I woke up again, now, the black obsidian rock that smelled like a hundred years of sea salt...was gone. I coughed and sputtered immediately, inhaling a noseful of brackish green-blue ocean water. Not very graceful. I felt warm sand under my cheek, blinked my eyes open, but was too weary to get up and look around. There could have been green sprigs of grass right in front of my eyes, tickling my brow, and I wouldn't be able to get up to taste them. They'd find be dead ten hours from now, with my teeth reaching for the clump of green, and my eyes would be open, and they'd have to say about me, She fell just short, and then she died. What a pity. That's what they'd say. They'd say I lived through a lot, and they'd say I could probably list all my achievements on the back of a paper napkin. How do I know about paper napkins? Well, I knew Gamble. And I play cards. Or I used to, at least. My hooves were partly stuck in the muddy sand, the water washing over me every few seconds. I had to time it and hold my breath when I felt its cool tingling up my legs, chest, neck...

I then started to hope I'd pass out again, choke on some water, and die. There was no way Mother Nature would find us together again. My life was as good as over. The gamble was poker, and it was time to fold my hand. I'd pulled a twenty-two in Blackjack.

OOC - there you go!!
WORDS - 725

[.:.Gambler.:.]

Gambler

Things weren't exactly going as planned. No-nothing ever did, did it? Everything was supposed to be better in these parts, things were supposed to be different. But, I just kept pulling the joker or old maid and losing the little game called life. It was mocking me, laughing at me and telling me I wasn't good enough to pass go. I had my hotels, I had my houses, and still I kept rolling snake eyes and ending up in jail.

Yes, the gambling man had taken a beating, and he wasn't about to go out to the tables again just yet. I was going to rest the night and see what the morning brought me, after such a day had brought me only disappointment. So I meandered back along the ocean, watching the sun as it paraded without a care across the sky. At the moment, I loathed it's existence. I wanted to sulk in my misery, in my contempt, and curl up in a ball and die. None of these women were like her; I'd never find another best friend like I had in her.

Well, that was part of the reason I didn't believe my eyes when I saw a frame outlined on the beach. That's why I thought I was just hallucinating. I was so lonely, so torn between reality and madness that I thought she had come back. No-hallucinating would have been believing it. Hallucinating would have been walking over there and talking to the probably a rock shaped like a horse.
So, what did I do?
I went over to it to talk to it.

I whickered softly, cautiously approaching it. For all I knew, it was some crocodile touched by the magic of this realm that had laid an allusion of a dead horse on top of it so it could eat me, much like that wolf, I wouldn't even say her name I was so angry with it's existence, had tried earlier. How had it never been taught manners?! It didn't matter now, I was going to die by crocodile. That would show that wolf that I was only eaten by things that didn't have fur on them. Things with tougher skin then just flesh.

I lowered my crown to the body, looking it over. There was no way it could really be her; it was my mind playing tricks on me. It felt so warm, so life like and soft however. It felt like her, that was for sure. The water washed toward her, and knowing it was an illusion, I did not move her body-if it was, by some million chance to one, then she would lift her head and acknowledge me. She was reaching for the grass in front of her; the least I could do for the illusion was play along enough to let it have the grass.
I nipped at it, tugging it from it's sandy grave, and dropped it next to her mouth.
I still did not say a word-I was too afraid of what would come from my mouth. I was too afraid of what I would end up telling this illusion.
I sighed, and looked down upon her. How I hoped it was really her-but knew I could never be that lucky. If it was her, then she wouldn't still be breathing.

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