Simply on a Dare | Karanila and Uluru

Karanila comes to a stop on her windracer board mere inches from the edge of the Niurros river. Here the turquoise blue water runs narrow and deep, so she keeps well to the edge when she wades in to her hocks for a drink. 

It had been a quiet trip to the meeting spot, and for once the wind that wound down the edges of the canyon to frisk the blood bay pintaloosa's tail was cool. While her mane is tied back as it usual is when she travels, Karanila watches the ends of her tail dance in the burst of breeze, echoing her excitement. Who would not feel frisky in such weather? Of course, part of the energy thrumming through her was anticipation of the arrival of her cousin, Uluru. Their breaks had finally aligned and it was time to make good on an old challenge. While their dares typically involved tricks on their boards, the one planned for that day was to be as they were before they became seriously interested in their professions - an obstacle race on hoof! Ahead there were too many obstacles to make surfing on the boards much of a competition anyways. Karanila pranced and flexed her teke, strapping her board neatly into her body harness. The light equipment folded down and stored easily, and both she and Uluru were strong enough now to carry their own boards for some distance. Besides, they would not have the added weight of messages or packages - or even their regular saddlebags to hinder them for this race. In fact, it would be more of a sprint and they could break out their boards once they reached the flatter and progressively emptier landscape - but the goal today was to stay off their boards as long as possible. Once Uluru arrived, refreshed herself, and strapped in her own board, their race could begin. 

Not a moment after she has the thought, Karanila hears the skid of another windracer board behind her. She turns, and, recognizing the sail, rears up and calls a greeting to her cousin.

"There you are! I thought you were going to chicken out and then I would win by default!"

Karanila lands back on all fours with a bounce and bobs her head excitedly.

"Come on, come on. Get your drink and strap your board in so we can stretch and start!"

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Karanila sticks her tongue out at Uluru's teasing. When they count down she coils like a spring, and when they shout the start she pushes off with all that coiled energy. She knows she matches Uluru closely in speed and kicks herself mentally when one of her pushes skids across the ground. She is determined not to face a humiliating loss because she couldn't find traction - or tripped and fell on her face!

The pair speeds across the hard-packed canyon floor, jumping small obstacles and swerving around the larger boulders. Their hair streams behind them in the wind of their passage and the cloud of sand and dust tossed up by their hooves collects behind them in a pseudo storm. At one point the ground rises and then drops suddenly from under them and they are airborne for a few seconds before their hooves reconnect with the ground and they are off again.

Ahead of them looms a long forgotten tree that had long ago fallen across the path just as the river narrows. They would either have to dart around it, leap the river, or leap over the trunk. Karanila glances at Uluru, hoping her cousin has been practicing her jumps as well. She leans into their pace and prepares to launch over the hallowed out bole. 

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Karanila launches over the log in time with her cousin and though her own board, still attached to her side, also rattles against the log she can tell Uluru has not practiced this kind of jump before. A moment after they land the pintaloosa feels glee, but then the high scratching sounds coming from the log behind them causes her to jump. 

"Wait, Ulu, I think we should-"

Thudding and flapping noises pulls Karanila's attention. She stares over her shoulder as the log rattles and something comes screeching out of one end of it too fast to see. Karanila feels a thrill of adrenaline and fumbles to break out her board. Uluru makes it to the flat landscape seconds before her, but rapid of pushes off the ground puts them even again.

Karanila notices the shadow seconds before she hears the angry cry from overhead, and a great avian drops down before them from the sky. Karanila leans heavily on her board, skidding around the side of the great bird that flaps and screeches at them in warning.

It was a thunderbird.

The great bird was a species native to Sedo, particularly God's Landing which was just to the northeast of them, but Karanila had never seen one this close before - and she never could have guessed what it was doing so far from the plateau nesting grounds. Her wonder and questions evaporate, however, when its beak claps close over their ears.

"Ride your inlines!" Karanila calls to her cousin only a moment before she does just that to pass by the predatory bird. She zooms by so close to the edge of the thunderbird's range that its feathers brush her shoulder. As soon as she rounds the thunderbird she clacks back down on all the wheels of her board and twists to check on Uluru.

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After watching the bedraggled bird take off after Uluru towards the edge of the river, Karanila throws her weight, leaning so that she swerves closer to the thunderbird. As Uluru scrambles near the ridge Karanila, circles under the thunderbird's belly to distract it

.

"Come on, fatty! The tastiest morsels are the hardest to catch!"



The thunderbird screeches angrily and lunges at Karanila, but the pintaloosa dodges out of the way - though she is still close enough to clip one of the bird's wings with the mast supporitng her board's sail. Then the thunderbird takes to the sky - only to dive back towards Uluru. At her cousin's screamed words Karanila struggles not to break down with laughter and speeds closer. She is intent on deflecting the pecking attack Uluru is under when the red clouds of dust obscure her vision. She skirts the cloud, coming to a stop when the thunderbird shoots upwards and out of sight. She tracks it across the blue sky, listening to its shrieks.



At her cousin's cries she turns. "Here! I'm here!" She comes to a stop beside Uluru as the other emerges from the sandstone arch. "Well. That was unexpected. I've never seen one of those in the flesh before. Are you alright?" She inspects leopard appaloosa and is relieved to find only minimal scrapes from their escape.



"So," she starts, a twinkle in her eyes, "you got enough juice to finish our flat race?" They had long passed the obstacle-ridden portion of the course by now, and she was hoping Uluru also still had that unfulfilled competitive need still burning inside even after their unplanned encounter. Even if this race ended in a draw right there under the sandstone arch they had another fantastic story to spin.

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