PROMPT 2 RESPONSE BEGINS HERE
The ink marked stallion does not hesitate in following when Epaphroditos chooses to advance on the very out of place dust storm. Because, of course, the other male is quite right there is no reason for such a thing to exist in the current conditions. Where is it getting its fuel from? Why isn’t the rain dampening it? For that matter, Epaphroditos does not appear to be doing anything to sustain the downpour so why hasn’t that stopped?
Completely distracted by the oddity now, Dustfinger fails to answer any more of his companion’s polite questions. Though it might partly be a convenient excuse for evading them. He certainly isn’t eager to undergo questioning concerning his lack of magic. Especially since, if his friends are to be believed, that lack is entirely due to laziness on his part.
They are nearing the spot when a great surge of magic that even the very unmagical Dustfinger can feel flares up and dances teasingly around them. This surge is followed almost immediately by the very loud arrival of Anevay who seems more than a little displeased with her assistants. It is Epaphroditos who gets the brunt of her displeasure because there is apparently no doubt that the downpour is his. But she is happily rounding on her second assistant as well when the magical surge suddenly grabs all of her attention and she turns to march off after it. No further thought is given to the downpour, the dust storm or anything else they might have discovered and not yet had the chance to tell her about. She simply marches doggedly on like a hound after a fox. Clearly she is not at all concerned that they might fail to follow her.
Honestly, Dustfinger isn’t sure that he could fail to follow at this point and he is curious about the whole thing anyway so he doesn’t consider it. Maybe for the same reasons, and maybe for reasons of his own, Epaphroditos also follows. Anevay leads them unerringly in the wake of the surging waves of magic. The stallions follow the flaming beacon of fire that is the desert goddess until at last they come to a tree. Well, a sapling really and for Dustfinger this is just a little bit anticlimactic. It is a strange tree sure enough, not like anything the wanderer has ever seen before but he hasn’t been in the desert before now either so for all he knows the thing is exactly where it is supposed to be.
Anevay promptly dispels that notion and Epaphroditos, who seems to know the desert nearly as well, agrees with her assessment. So, what is the deal with the silly tree then? Apparently that is the boys’ newest task. The Goddess issues her orders and just as before disappears without a trace. Dustfinger sighs but is clearly not interested in wasting time.
“Right. Let’s get to it then.”
With no further thought on the matter he trots right up to the sapling and dives into digging with hooves and horn unthinkingly answering his companion’s earlier question about his lack of magic use thus far. Surely if he had the use of any great power it would have been his go to in this situation, right? Instead he is at it with physical force tempered by caution. “Don’t hurt the tree” had been Anevay’s final command after all. This looks as if it could take awhile...
570 words (2 chimes for word count)
Total word count so far; 2,664: +10 chime total
[b]Other Group Members: 1946 Epaphroditos[/b]
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