The forest around them was dark and green and a little… strange. The trees and bushes closest to them were in sharp relief and almost seemed to have… were those outlines around their edges? Almost as if they hovered on the cusp between flat and three dimensional. Further away the colors seemed to blur and blend together, giving the place an oddly unfinished look. It drew the eye to what was closest to hand though, and closest to Jigano’s hands were… hooves?
He jerked his head up, eyes going wide and startled as he pranced uncertainly on four iron-shod feet. Four feet, at least, were nothing new to him – but hooves most certainly were! He snorted and shook his head – and mane – in growing distress as he turned to try and get a look at himself, turning a tight circle as he caught sight of a large flank and flowing white tail. He was, in fact, a pale white horse from the tips of what had once been toes all the way to the madly twisting points of his large ears.
”Damnation! he swore sharply, relieved – if shocked in a different way – to hear the human words emerge in his own voice from his equine mouth. ”What the hell--!” He planted his feet and stopped, glaring around him in tense uncertainty, seeking whoever had done this to him and sparing a worried thought for Samuel—
No sooner had he thought of his new friend than the man appeared, albeit different than he had looked in the library. Oh, his face and build were still the same, but his clothes had been replaced with a huntsman’s leathers, a quiver of arrows on his hip and a bow slung across his back. On the oddly flat grass of the clearing just in front of him lay a single fiery feather, burning red and gold yet leaving the greenery beneath it unsinged.
Jigano snorted and stamped a hoof, distressed at how easily his equine body responded to his emotional turmoil in a way far more horse than human. ”Samuel? What is going on?!” he demanded – well, neighed – pawing at the loam of the forest floor while his ears flattened back along his bridled head. Samuel was the native, the one who should know what was and wasn’t normal… right?
He jerked his head up, eyes going wide and startled as he pranced uncertainly on four iron-shod feet. Four feet, at least, were nothing new to him – but hooves most certainly were! He snorted and shook his head – and mane – in growing distress as he turned to try and get a look at himself, turning a tight circle as he caught sight of a large flank and flowing white tail. He was, in fact, a pale white horse from the tips of what had once been toes all the way to the madly twisting points of his large ears.
”Damnation! he swore sharply, relieved – if shocked in a different way – to hear the human words emerge in his own voice from his equine mouth. ”What the hell--!” He planted his feet and stopped, glaring around him in tense uncertainty, seeking whoever had done this to him and sparing a worried thought for Samuel—
No sooner had he thought of his new friend than the man appeared, albeit different than he had looked in the library. Oh, his face and build were still the same, but his clothes had been replaced with a huntsman’s leathers, a quiver of arrows on his hip and a bow slung across his back. On the oddly flat grass of the clearing just in front of him lay a single fiery feather, burning red and gold yet leaving the greenery beneath it unsinged.
Jigano snorted and stamped a hoof, distressed at how easily his equine body responded to his emotional turmoil in a way far more horse than human. ”Samuel? What is going on?!” he demanded – well, neighed – pawing at the loam of the forest floor while his ears flattened back along his bridled head. Samuel was the native, the one who should know what was and wasn’t normal… right?
