@invre poked his head out unexpectedly...
In the mid-summer, sometimes all the sweat and itching he got from working hard in the day could only truly be washed off by a bath, and a ride out in the middle of the night. Chilchuck wasn't by nature an insomniac; however, after moving out to the city and finally dropping his basement dwellings, he was subject to so much more noise. Fights brewing less than a mile away at the tavern, the despairing wail of a child who hasn't yet learned to rest throughout the night, and thumping he couldn't place for origin, from either neighbor closest to his business.
He was following an old road. At night, he could get some work done, at least. Belatina was a supply pony before ownership came to him, and it'd make sense she'd start heading down the way she was brought for the last three years.
Chilchuck had been calm, seconds ago.He thought he might scare out whatever mage was playing tricks around a dungeon, maybe a young, one-hundred year old that was preying upon young travelers to get a laugh. Putting on a stern voice while his grip had tightened on the reins upsets his companion. The half-foot can't help a jerk when the shifting in the foliage makes his skin crawl with uncertainty.
Belatina reacts ten times as poorly when a figure appears from the ether in front of her. She rears, her hooves raised in the air. It would've made a fine painting of moonlight with her violent expression and a shadow silhouetting this stranger, had herself and her companion been a few hands taller. Maybe even Napoleonic, if he were better dressed.
Chilchuck tries to knot the leather straps around his fingers to control her head, and this only serves to make one outcome possible: the horse to toss him when he pulls far too hard.
quite luckily, she's satisfied with that when he hits the earth, though unsteadily pacing away from the two.The half-foot has dirt to wipe from his mouth, a perfect time to glare at this ... somewhat familiar stranger.
He'd been about to start seething at him when his gaze begins to fully assess who was standing there. Not royalty- but not undistinguished.
No. He still had a right to be upset.
"Gee! I could ask the same thing-! " He wheezes out his air, trying to stand at a dignified, staggering height beside his slowly retreating steed.
" What-? What?" He blusters at the implacable face. " Is this place private property of someone important?! There's no maps of this area! That's what I'm here for!" Clearly, he was reaching for reasons, whether or not this elf wanted to spit it out in a manner he felt was timely for response.
