No Peace in Quiet {Whitaker & Othala}

The mare waited patiently as Whitaker silently stared down at the ground before his hooves. She knew that expression, had seen at multiple times on other persons. He was lost in thoughts and she would not disturb him.

Only a few moments later he suddenly lifted his gaze as if he just had realized that she was still here.
“A break sounds great” she nodded with a slight smile. It would be good to get out of the city, at least for a little while.
Only a year ago she longed to stay longer than a work-day in Inaria. She wanted to walk the streets at night, being a part of this dazzling city. Today she could stay here as long as she wanted, but all she wished for was to get out of here. How ironic.

“Yeah? Well then lead the way!” She followed him and slightly spread her wings. “Is it far away? We could fly then. I have no problem getting out of this rain as soon as possible” she said laughing. The mare didn’t mind the rain, but now where she actually had a destination she wanted to leave Inaria behind her as fast as possible.
"Are you from here?"
Othala hesitated a moment before she answered. Then she released a deep breath and turned her gaze away from him and towards the street in front of her.
“Yes...I was born in one of the small villages that surround this city. My mother owns a small shop here, and I helped her there until I became a Cleric.”
For some moments she turned silent again before she continued speaking. “I ran away the day before they tossed my family into Torrine. That was...more than cowardly but I hate being locked up...with every fiber of my body. I...just couldn’t stay there.”

Maybe it was already too much information. He probably just wanted to be polite and do a little small talk. And she talked too much again.
“And, what about you? Where are you from?” she quickly asked.

She quickly folded her dark wings carefully against her body again and an apologetically smile appeared on her face. “Sorry. You are right. I surely can’t even imagine how tiring it must be to fly for that long. As a medic I should know better” she apologized and walked beside him.

She did her best not to look too closely to all the damaged and partly even fully destructed buildings along the street. Only a few months ago she had walked this streets almost daily, but now she had really trouble to remember Inaria as it once was. That dead corpse of a city was so different from the lively town she had known.
Othala was glad her mother’s shop was at a different side of the city for she was not sure if she could bear the sight of it. Maybe the shop was gone, like so many other buildings. Probably robbed. One part of her wanted to visit the small store, but the bigger part of her didn’t.

“Brave? Maybe, but also irresponsible” she sighed without any further explanation. She hesitated a moment to ask, but in the end the urge to know it was too strong.
“At your patrols you did not happen to see a pegasus colt by any chance? Peacock feathers, chimeric markings?” She couldn’t suppress the slightly tone of hope that had sneaked into her voice. It was a vain hope. No one she talked to had seen Tegan. He just disappeared.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the buckskin stallion wince as she returned the question about his origin, but after he talked so calmly and without hesitation she wondered if she might just have imagined that.
.
“I’m sorry to hear that, but it must have been exciting to travel across Hireath! I have never seen nothing other than Aquore” she replied and laughed a little bitterly. “Well you should have seen Inaria in it’s good days. Despite all circumstances it was a beautiful city.”

After some time the question where he lead her was answered. Whitaker stopped before a building that might have been nice before the attack, but now it was more damaged than anything else. She was not able to recognize what the building had been once, until the stallion told her that it was a pub.
“Well, it’s rustically” she said slightly amused but also a little curious. Othala never had been in a pub before. Her mother wouldn’t allow it.

The mare watched as Whitaker climbed over the debris and searched something in the mess. She slightly crooked her head and took a look at her fellow flock members finding. It was a bottle, most likely filled with alcohol.
“Well...I never drank before…” she said a little bit unsure. But a little bit should be alright...maybe it would soothe her nerves a little bit. She had chosen freedom over anything, so she shouldn’t be afraid to try new things. “But...hey there is a first for everything, right?”
Othala was glad the room was rather dark, so that Whitaker maybe wouldn’t notice her nervosity.

The mare watched silently as Whitaker lifted some bottles just to lay them aside again after a short glance. After a while a smile spread across the stallion's face and he handed one of them over to her.
“I’m not...nervous about it” she answered back and looked at the bottle. It was a lie, but he did not had to know. A little relaxation was all she wanted at the moment.

With a thanking nod in Whitaker’s direction she took a small swig from the bottle. Her mother had always told her not to drink from the bottle, but it would be a miracle to find an undamaged glass in the destroyed store.
Othala made a bit of a face after she tasted the first swig, it was a strange taste, but okay after a few moments. She once had a patient with an serious alcohol problem and the old horse told her that the taste of a drink doesn’t matter, it just had to take an effect. And after all those years she was finally able to understand him to a certain degree.

When Whitaker coughed her attention flickered back to him and for a moment the worry was clearly visible on her face, but she relaxed immediately as he started joking about the rum.
“Do you drink often?” she asked openly and took another sip from the bottle. He had appeared a little nervous before, but once they entered the pub it was completely gone. So she assumed that this was not new for him. Maybe it was wrong to ask that, but he could always refuse to answer her.
It was still a little strange how few things she actually knew about him, or any of the other Flock members.

Her eyes watched the buckskin as he turned away to look for a different drink and her ears folded flat against her back for a moment when he answered her and mentioned Torrine.
“Torrine…” she snorted disparagingly. “Have you been there? It’s terrible. The camp is way too small for that many horses...I hope they find another solution quickly. With all those injured horses so close to each other it would be no wonder if a disease breaks loose..” For a moment her thoughts went to her family. She couldn’t visit them until she had found Tegan...Without knowing him in safety she wouldn’t be able to look into her mother's eyes.
“That’s too bad...but I didn’t actually expected that you have seen him.” she sighed resignated and returned the look of Whitaker. Othala couldn’t interpret the expression in his ember eyes.

“Yes I do” she said a little louder than before to drown out the dull clatter of the rain. “My brother...half brother, Tegan. He disappeared during the attack. I have spoken with dozens of horses but no one has seen him. He is not in Torrine and I don’t think that he is hiding somewhere in Inaria. But well, at least he was not under the injured...or dead. He is only twelve, I have to find him”

For a moment she focused her attention on the caramel-colored liquid in the bottle in front of her, before she looked back to Whitaker with the shadow of an apologizing smile on her face.
“I’m sorry. I guess I’m not the best company right now” she said and crooked her head a little to one side. “I wonder why we never really spoke before. I’m with the Flock for more than half a year, and we barely ever talked to each other. I can’t imagine what an image you must have from me right now. Usually I’m way less gloomy.”
And maybe she should stop drinking right now.

“I know what you mean. The camp is a horrible place. Too many horses, to many hateful eyes that watch you. Even when I try to help them they have this...look in their face. They fear us, but their hate is growing stronger every day. The atmosphere is boiling. If Perseus does nothing soon, every chance of a peaceful coexistence of all breeds will be impossible...at least for a very long time.” those words came with a shaky breath of air.
She had never felt completely comfortable when she walked among the people of Inaria, but never, ever in her life had she been afraid of the horses that once were her fellow citizens. Now she was. A desperate being would do anything in their power to change things. And they had locked away so many desperate horses in one place.

Othala was a little surprised that the gelding shared her opinion. After all she wasn’t the only one that questioned the path the Flock’s leader had chosen for them. And with every day that passed it became harder to justify the Flock’s actions to herself.

“Would you really do that? Thank you so much! Honestly, thank you Whitaker.”
Thank you for everything. She was grateful that she could talk to someone, someone who understood how she felt about the current situation.

Slowly but surely she could feel the leaden cold of fatigue spreading in her very bones, but the mare was not yet ready to give into her exhaustion. Whitaker could be off again on patrol by the morning and who knew when she would have the chance to talk to him again.

“At least, you can't be more gloomy than me."

In the matter of a second a pair of two colored eyes focused back on the gelding. Her gaze bespoke the sharp mind that was hiding behind a beautiful face and she purposely surrounded herself in a calming and soothing aura to increase the chances that he won’t shut himself off to her again.
“I think I talked way too much today while you remained silent. You have a heavy heart Whit...and not only since the attack. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if you try and open up a little from time to time. Festering wounds won’t heal until you open them.”
Her voice was gentle and after a moment she carefully reached out with one of her wings to softly touch his shoulder with the tip of dark wing, a comfortingly gesture.

After the change of subject she closed her eyes for a moment before she opened them again to look out of the dirty window. The glass was cracked in different places and allowed only a distorted picture of the world outside.
“Yes...and I fear that they it won’t take much longer for them to organize...I don’t want to see another bloodshed. The last time I was only a bystander, far enough away to not get involved, but this time it would be different….”
Her family was right behind the thick walls of Torrine. But before the topic could end up too gloomy again she forced a rueful smile on her face. “Did I ever told you that I’m kinda pacifistic?” she asked. “I’ve vowed to myself never to hurt someone...and until today I never did, at least not physically. And I even refused to touch a weapon. Torsten was in despair when I was in the basic training after my arrival at the flock”
It didn’t took long before he send her away to Renata.

When Whitaker proposed to search a place to stay for the night, Othala couldn’t oppress a slight smile. What should happen to her in the streets? She couldn’t remember anything but despicable looks at her wings. That was literally the only “bad” thing that had ever happened to her in the city. But it was a kind gesture of him so she didn’t said anything against it.
“Renata wouldn’t kill you, giving you some wrong herbs to get you stomach ache for days, yes, but nothing worse” she joked and also spread her wings. On top they were from a dark grey, almost black. The underside however was from the same color as her light head feathers.

“Well I have spend all my nights in the lazarett until now...but I know a place for us to stay.” and for a moment she hesitated. Her home was not far away, a few minutes in the sky and they would reach the small village...but she wasn’t ready to go home. Not yet.
“My mother has a small shop at the edge of Inaria and in the upper floor is a small flat. We slept there when it became too late in the evening to go home. Follow me”

She definitely wanted to fly. The way wasn’t that long, but she hadn't used her wings in a week or so and she missed the sky badly.
Quickly she stepped over the shards in the damaged inn and trotted out of the door. The mare turned her head quickly to check if Whitaker was still behind her, then she spread the wings again soared into the air.