Disclaimer: Valdemar, and anything at Velgarth belongs to Mercedes Lackey. Any original characters in the story are mine, you can't have them ;-)
Its nostrils flaring slightly, the horse arched its neck-- both ears flicking forwards as it tilted its head to watch Teirgan with one strangely colored eye.
Standing there, Teirgan couldn't help but feel a growing nervousness.
It was really too dark for him to determine the horse's gender without moving, which was probably the last thing he wanted to do at the moment-- anything that might startle the beast into attacking had to be avoided.
Certainly most horses would just run if frightened, some stallions could be rather unpredictable, if the one in front of him was one..
And of-course there was the fact that stumbling over such a strange-looking horse in the middle of nowhere was rather strange no matter how one looked at it. Valdemar wasn't at war at the present as far as he knew, but that didn't mean that there was a lack of potentially dangerous people out there.
Himself included.
Well, at least he tried to make a reputation for himself in certain places..
Hunnnnn, said the horse, and staring at it-- Teirgan caught himself in wondering if the beast was amused by the whole situation.
Well, finding odd horses wandering around in a storm like this was certainly not something that would happen every day, he thought, finding himself stumbling backwards a moment later as the horse gave him a nudge with its muzzle.
"Hey, careful there!" he grumbled, "I'm hardly indestructible. And if you want any food, which I'm sure that you do-- you better behave!".
While scanning the forest around for any signs of that someone might be sneaking up on them, something that was really quite pointless since he couldn't see more than a few meters through the falling sleet, he slowly reached up with a hand to give the horse a light pat at the neck. He had no idea what to do with it really, considering that it might bring unwanted visitors to him and the others if anyone were out there looking for the horse.
Obviously taking it into the shelter posed another heap of problems, as he had no idea how it would react to his own horse or the companion, and dealing with a horse that size who had decided that it didn't like its company, or liked it too much-- was more than enough to make him frown. In the end, the best thing to do might be to just leave it outside with any food that they could spare and hope that it would make it through the storm..
Teirgan wasn't really given much more time to mull over the problem, as just then the Companion poked its head out of the shelter, undoubtely to see what was taking him so long..
And it was just then that the strange horse decided to strike.
In a split second, the horse had gotten a good hold at the shoulder of Teirgan's fortunately quite sturdy jacket, and then he found himself nearly lifted into the air as the horse pulled him along with it. Turning around with a swiftness that was a bit uncanny considering its size and the closeness or the trees, it headed away from the shelter and further into the forest at a brisk walk.
Shortly after however, that walk quickened into a trot as Teirgan heard something come after them, no doubt the Companion had seen what had happened when it looked outside. Whether it was accompanied by its Herald or not though.., Teirgan didn't know as he really didn't want to risk looking back, in case doing so might get his head in the way of a branch or something.
At least by trying to look forwards, which wasn't easy when he was being pulled along by a horse, he might use an arm to shield his face if necessary. Though another source of discomfort was the rather difficult task of trying to avoid breaking anything against the legs of the horse as it moved.
Which was quite exhausting.
Deciding that he really didn't want to wait and see where the horse would bring him, Teirgan swung his arm up to strike at the size of its head. That proved quite useless too though, as he really only managed to acquire an aching hand, and a aching hip too as one of the horse's knees knocked into it quite hard.
Uttering a string of words that would certainly not have been suitable in the presence of most people, had he cared, he let the horse drag him along for a while longer as he tried to come up with a better method of making it let go off him.
Too bad that he hadn't thought of bringing his knife when he had went outside a little while ago.
But then again, most sane people would hardly expect to find themselves abducted by a damned horse.
It was then that the horse decided to come to a skidding stop, and then Teirgan found himself released-- to fall onto the rather wet, cold and very uncomfortable ground. As he started to turn however, grimacing in a mix of anger and reacting to the ice and sleet which had found its way past the neck of his jacket, he found himself looking at someone at the ground as the horse nudged him around.
Considering that you have the advantage of being equipped with hands, and a nifty pair of opposable thumbs too, would you mind helping her?
It took Teirgan a moment or two before he realized that it had been the horse that spoke to him, during which it looked at him with a look of unmistakeable annoyance at its long face. And slack jawed(which didn't really do much for his appearance), he stared at it in a mix of surprise and disbelief.
Still, compared to the being at the ground, a talking horse that was not a Companion as far as he knew wasn't that much out of the ordinary.