---Thirty Days Ago---
Tameness was touch and go for a mistreated horse. Cruel masters ruled his will with fear. Mingle in fear with security and one has a beast who will obey with loyalty for food and safety, while behaving wildly when the routine is broken.
If such a beast is ever truly tame at all or simply oppressed, is anyone's guess.
But this particular horse; Sonuncusu, "The Last One", so named by Ryheric the Wayfarer, had been shown kindness. Space, respect. Pressure and release; the language between horsemen and their steeds.
Despite the beast's dangerous nature, some lessons had begun to sunk in. The whisperings into his equine ears by Brynleigh of Rohan and Cwenawaynn, sister-daughter to Theo of Rohan, had yielded some softness in him.
It was due to this growing true tameness and goodwill towards his new master, that Sonuncusu in restlessness followed his trail after being abandoned for a tenday.
At the end of this trail came a moment of choice.
Savagery, destruction and loyalty.
Or fear, softness and safety.
It was at the end, that Sonuncusu locked eyes one last time with Eirik who had slain his five stablemates at the very beginning, and Eirik knew in that moment the horse's fate was not for Ryheric at all, but for him. Both Sonuncusu and Eirik villains in one anothers' tales. Both of them yet also heroes.
Sonuncusu fell at the hands of orcs. Wild, dangerous and terrible as Eirik suspected him to be in the first moment, now in his final ones, and whether by chance or intention, or something more mysterious, he covered the way for Eirik - who had in that moment given to his own wild bloodlust - to release his captured enemy and get away.
Emma rode in on Bansil and Eirik grasped the saddle and the great faithful steed of Rohan galloped away as Sonuncusu met his demise behind them. Grief filled Eirik's heart and in it he found his humanity as all seemed so lost and astray. In the coming days, it would soften the pit that formed in his heart in the wake of Oni's evasion of Eirik's dark justice.
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Sonuncusu's Fate
Submitted by Ryheric on July 18th, 2023
