A second later, or an hour. You wake with shivers of cold moving down the length of your body and a stick pokes you painfully in the back. You try to lift your head, but even your hair is tangled into thorny bushes. Panic surges. Heedless of the pain you try to pull yourself free.
A female voice sighs. "Ja~ni, human. My name is Green Tiger, I will help you. Be still." You feel something smooth and cool like ivory against your neck. The wines are quickly cut, and you turn your head to meet the gaze of a magnificantly coloured unicorn mare. Quickly, she withdraws out of reach, nostrils widening. You noitice that her flanks are marked with terrible scars. "Can you stand?"
You pull yourself out of the thicket, wincing at the pain every movement seem to increase. Banging your right leg against the stump of a tree causes you almost to faint again, using the trunk you manage to pull yourself up to standing on one leg. "I'm afraid I'm not getting that far... Maybe you could carry me?" You look up at her hopefully. "I'm actually considered to be quite a good rider." you add.
"I am not a mule!" She tosses her head up, green eyes alive with fury. "You humans are all the same. I don't know why I bother with you at all." Your heart chill by the thought of being left alone in the dark forest, and hurriedly you take back what you just said. "I'm so sorry, please forgive me." Green Tiger reluctantly turns to face you. "All right." She cuts you off. "If you put your arm around my neck I will help you stand. I know the way."
Some time pass in silence as you slowly and painfully force your unwilling body to move. Leaning heavily against her soft coat you can feel the blood trickling down the back of your head, down your shoulder where it is soaked up by her fur. Trying to distract yourself from the pain you strive to find a subject of conversation, anything. "Where do all you.. unicorns come from?" You had meant to say 'animals', but luckily you corrected yourself in time. It seems like her voice comes from somewhere far away as she replies. "The unicorns have always favoured this place. Many different kinds of creatures live here, and many of them come from distant lands. Some are refugees, some just in search of a place to call home." She falls silent, and you try to think of a new question to coax her to talk when she continues. "Know, wanderer, I am of asire blood and when we asire are first born, we leave our mothers to go exploring the realms of shadows." 'To Amber?' you ask, but she shake her head - almost smile a little. "More likely chaos. But these rites of passage are all in the past. Not all of our foals survive them, but those who do grow strong and eventually return to the tarsuinn, the tribe, in which they were born before finding themselves new homes. She turns her head to look at you, her blue eyes strangely sad. "My first home was not... all that it should have been. Only now am I starting to feel that I belong in a place. That I belong here." She shake her mane, a few silken strands touching your face. "How are you doing?" She asks, gently. "It is not so far to go now." You nod and force a smile. "I will manage." She snorts in reply. "I sure hope so, considering the trouble I'm going through..." This time you are almost sure that she is teasing you, too bad just moving on takes too much strenght and sheer will to come up with a suitable reply.
Together, you walk on.
Name: Green Tiger
Species: Asire Unicorn
Gender: Female
Parents: Wild
From: Sirah's Realm