"Rocket Ride" is copyrighted by Ace Frehley. I accept no credit for the lyrics.
.The Unknown.
The dark wood spread across the broad hills and mountains in a blanket of emerald as far as the eye can see. Slivers of silver illumination spears through the canopy to glow upon the leaf and branch littered topography--dancing and swaying as the gentle wind waltzes through the deciduous trees. Bubbling brooks and spraying mists of waterfalls play to a cold symphony right as each individual mass begins its nocturnal serenade. A night behold, a glorious one. Beautiful it is to any eye to see, trained or not. It was home.
Sage of Halo perches himself upon a broad rock upon the edge of a stream, watching the moon reflecting off its surface. Tiny streaks of platinum dart and here beneath its boundary, picking and salvaging along the mud and rocks for its feed. His legs fold close to his body as his arms drape over the bend knees, watching the surface with his own image and sub armor obscuring the perfect picture. More like a mirror actually. He watches as his own golden tresses flutter within the zephyr, the infamous lock over his right eye flicking enough to reveal both lavender irises. His handsome countenance remains rock-hard as does his impassive eyes.
Despite the appearance of solitude and serenity, his soul ached for something. From something perhaps. The air about the forest suddenly electrifies with something he can't comprehend. An unknown force perhaps? Or else he has been out here far too long and his mind is playing tricks on him. Perhaps he shouldn't of had that extra slice of pizza for supper.
Not one person, after all, is indestructible. Especially from the after effects of food.
Suddenly he is yanked out of his thoughts as a slender and sleek doe shoves her way from the thick foliage toward his left--seeming to appear like an earthly spirit. Behind her, almost at her left thigh, follows a tiny fawn with its sienna coat still flecked with alabaster spots. Amazingly, a soft smile appears upon his lips at the innocence.
"Hello there,' he breathes tenderly, a voice reserved for very few and what few there are walk on four legs. He watches softly like he could sense their feelings--his eyes watching their form, but luckily without the sensation of a predator.
The mother doe halts by the edge of the brook, her front dainty hooves planted delicately within the mud coating the bank. Her long ears flick and she twists her head, placing her large and innocent mahogany eyes on him. Her black nose twitches slightly as she inhales his scent, curiously figuring him out. He did not smell like a for--but he didn't smell like her either. She reaches back toward her child with her slender neck bending elegantly, touching his own nose with her own. Then, with a snort, she bends low and proceeds to sip the cool and refreshing water.
Then, closer then comfort, an eerie cry of a wolven pack leader shatters the serenity. It seems that even he has caught the scent of the mother and fawn. Growls can be heard in the distance, accompanied by vicious snarls. An argument perhaps. All in all, it did not sound well at all.
'What a comforting thought,' Sage contemplates within his mind. 'Of all the times for this mother to come out of the brush, it had to be now. Terrific. But I can't let her be hurt. I can't!'
He edges closer to the rock with his legs unfolding and swinging over. He nearly lowers himself with the rustle of leaves and five swift bodies emerging from it seems to freeze him in place. He watches with horror as the alpha male, a young wolf it seems with the integument of snow and the eyes of copper, leap within the middle of the creek. Strange and odd. The doe does not even budge.
The leader glances at Sage with his own wisdom coating his youthful irises. A snort departs from his nostrils with his fur bristling. He then switches his vision toward the mother, his triangular lobes perking forward and his bushy tail swaying twice.
"You're kidding me!?' he bursts out in a silence as the doe only nods her head like she understood the wolf's intentions, and reverses to reveal her youth. 'No, no! He'll eat him!'
Unlike any animal ever before that Sage has ever met, the wolf glares at him. His lobes pin against his skull and his velvet lips pull away from his glistening fangs. The fur around his collar seems to elevate in size right as he takes a single step toward him. Sage merely stares back, still unable to move, and perhaps too astonished by this lupine's actions to do anything else but.
Even stranger, the fawn steps down into the water and nudges the silver wolf's skull right beneath his ear. He glances up at him with tender eyes and a gentle cry escapes his throat. He nudges the wolf once more before reversing back onto land. The fawn edges close to his mother as though attempting to blend in with her.
The doe lowers her head toward the alpha in what appears as silent speech. She glances calmly at the one of Light, mirth reflecting within her orbs. She then glances at the four other lupines lined upon the edge of the creek, each sitting and staring straight like silent vigils. She steps toward them and lowers her cranium--eyes closing and ears retracting against her crown. With that, the lead wolf mirrors her actions and then flees into the forest with his four other companions following him.
"What's going on?" Sage whispers as he suddenly slides off the rock and lands rump bottom into the creek. Water gushes against him and the knife-like fish dart into their hiding places. His lavender eyes blink and he sighs, leaning against the rock behind him with a painful moan.
"That's never happened before," he grumbles and attempts to stand up, only to slip on the film covered rocks and lands once more on his can. Can, indeed, with the sub armor.
The fawn snorts what seems like a childish giggle. He then leaps into the creek, seeming to miss elegantly the smooth rocks littering the bed. He then flicks his tail twice against his rump as he nears the one of Halo. The fawn stretches out his tiny skull and nuzzles Sage against the cheek.
He reaches up and strokes the youth's slender neck with an amused chuckle. 'You find this funny, don't you?' he inquires with an added laugh. 'I guess it would be from your perspective. But you are certainly an odd baby, aren't you?'
The juvenile deer elevates his head and the moon flashes instantly on it. He blinks from the sudden illumination and reveals for an instant crystal blue irises. With another blink the strange color vanishes back to its original for his species. Then, with a lick upon Sage's cheek, he bounds off into the brush where he came from--his dam following.
"That was very, very strange," mutters Sage, picking himself up from the creek. He slides onto the giant boulder behind him, once again returning to his meditation pose. He watches the distance with confusion dancing within his usually emotionless eyes, searching for an answer. No creatures on this earth has ever treated each other with such--respect? Dignity? Especially predators and pray.
'It was like they knew each other. It was like they could talk to each other. I've never seen anything like this. I mean, I've seen nether spirits and I've seen souls. I've battled evil and visited realms beyond this one--But--It's very strange. And somehow it fits.'
"Oh God, not again!"
"Take a rocket ride--"
"Lord spare us!"
"Baby wants it fast. Baby wants a blast--"
"Dear, dear Kamaree, can you spare the "Rocket Ride" for once and let us continue our travels in peace?"
Silence invades the forest as three human creatures strolls through it--a slender female reaching the height of nearly 5 foot 8 inches. Her long tresses of shimmering silver sway around her until the middle of her back, each strand free from any hold. A simple garment covers her torso, edges curving over her breasts, and ends at a flaring at mid thigh. Glinting boots appearing like platinum stretch to her knees and each side is decorated with a dagger in its silver sheath. The appearance of the first stage of the Kamaree. Upon her right sweeps a male human being a few inches taller then her, his gate relaxed to a near strut. A robe covers his form and what flesh is exposed glows like the moon--exactly like the other two with him. His pale hair seems to form a rough collar around him like a wolf--its edges ending near his shoulders. The third upon Kamaree's left towers her at nearly a foot in height, the mere fact nearly surpassed by his own aura. Mystery surrounds him, unearthly and drowning. He wears the same exact rose as the other male and his hair seems to swirl around his form to his back, seeming like the silky mane of an equine beast. Upon his forehead rests a light sky blue star.
Kamaree frowns and a smirk plays upon her lips as she shifts her attention upon the one upon her left. "Would you rather me sing something else, Lord Naki?" she demands as the smirk twists into an evil grin.
"Actually, I would prefer if you didn't sing anything, Lady Kamaree. Perhaps in that way ears can heal,' the Human-Unicorn king responds nonchalantly and waves lithely through a thick patch of brambles.
Kamaree drops her jaw and stares at the earth, see too dodging the growth and pushing the other male away purposefully. Especially at his snickers. 'You know, years ago, I did happen to be one the best musicians this world had to offer!'
"Yeah, but that's been over ten years ago! And you were a guitarist, not a vocalist. Even -you- admitted that you couldn't--how did you say it?--carry a tune in a bucket?" snorts Lumaree. He swings past a tree in enough time to avoid crashing into it. "But, but, your guitar skills were great. I mean, you wouldn't believe how many people out there now are trying to sound just like you! And look like you. It's kind of like your--"
"White Fang, you might want to shut your trap before I shut it for you," snarls Kamaree and slapping the Human-Wolf upon his bicep.
Lumaree contorts his face like he was brutally injured and grasps the place where she slugged him. "Oh my God! That's animal abuse! I am sooo calling animal control when we get home! Then we'll see what happens to the famous Miss Crystal Stratus of Acid Rock!"
She rolls her eyes and shakes her crown. A deep sigh departs from her as she mocks, "Oh, I can see that! 'Yeah, hey, my mistress, you know that old guitarist--yeah, her!!! Crystal Stratus! I don't care if she vanished over a decade ago! She slapped me for--hello? Hello!? Damnit!"
White Fang bursts out and nearly sinks to the ground. He clutches his stomach, doubled over in laughter as though her words were the most hilarious in existence! Yet it wasn't that exact comment that got him, it was the next.
"And I just can't believe I called myself old."
Naki sighs at the childish others and steps on forward. He glances back at the others coldly--thin lips parting to emit between, "Once you two have returned back to your senses, please feel free to contact me. I am sure Lord Kalmir and Lord El Diablo Negro has found and set up our camping location. If you find it necessary to complete your tasks and join us, I would be so honored and appreciate it. If you decide not to, then both of you please procreate as soon as possible so the Maree might have others that are more suited to being what they are and not petty children." His words soon depart as soon as he does, vanishing into the trees like an apparition--leaving silence in his wake.
Kamaree blinks at the spot to where the leader of her kind vanished, his insult still seeming to spin upon the air. She smirks at such a stinging comment, adding her own, "Well, I'm glad to know that nothing has changed with him. I imagine he had no sense of humor when he was a foal either."
"If he did, it vanished a long, long, long time ago," agrees White Fang. "And I mean long, too."
"Long, long, long, long, loooooong time ago!" they both chorus together with chuckles. The fits of giggles soon erupt once more, indeed appearing 'unMaree' like and instead giving the illusion of two best friends chatting over ridiculous subjects. The usual of young adults.
Soon, the laughing subdues and fades--forced chuckles rising and lowing. Breathes are exhaled later and guts are clutched. "Well, that was amusing," snorts one of them, both too unconscious enough to know exactly who. Besides, both woman and wolf are so close, it's almost like they knew what the other was thinking.
"Well, you know White Fang, I think it might be time to explore this place and see what damage I can come up with, ya know? Besides, I'm sure Lord Naki and his unsense-of-humorless self can withstand having his famous triple daily speeches without me making fun of him."
"Mentally of course."
"Of course! Do you think I want impaled over and over again?"
"Just about as much as I want sheered," the Wolf yelps wide eyed. Relaxing instantly afterwards, he clutches her on her shoulder and in his attempt of a horrible impression, adds, "I know it's a dangerous world out there, but you can make it and you can do it! You can reach that shinning star in the distance," his free hand mimicking his speech, "and bring to you and only you! You've got the spirit, now go out there, kiddo, and get it!!"
Kamaree blinks once more and stares at him, her brows elevated and a meek laugh separating. "White Fang?"
He dips low and his clenched fist nears her jaw. 'Yes, oh yes my darling, beautiful child? Speak to me like you have never spoken before!"
"Don't quit your day job." With that response, she sweeps past him and enters the wood, leaving him to mutter to himself and finish his traveling toward the Maree campsite.