Unfamiliar territory

[Aleron]

  Aleron had left the company of Taz, not wanting to be a burden to him. She had been exploring for a few days now, hearing rumours and stories about the coven here, the twins that seemed to rule the lands.
  She was having uneasy thoughts, Taz had advised her to find them but she was unsure, she had not met another vampire since the one who had turned her and she had no idea how others were, is they were like Frederick then they had nothing but evil in them.
  She this night decided to bite the bullet and found herself in the coven territory, the sounds of unusual beasts and the familiar neighs of horses had brought her here, to the ranch. She snuck in, not seeing anyone around and was wide eyed as she looked in the pens to see the various magical creatures that for the most part, she had no clue what they were.
  The last few days had been long ones, Taz was not there to distract her fragile mind and so she found herself tired and her mind exhausted. Stopping in front of a stable, homes to a beautiful back stallion, Aleron smiled, she loved horses in her human life and that love had followed her into the next.
  The horse had no heartbeat, it's eyes were red, it had been bitten. She watched it for some time, the swish of it's large tale, the movement of those blood red eyes, it simply watched her back.

  Holding a hand out she turned her head away as she would have done to a strange horse before, he came over to her, her cold hand found his cold head and she began to stroke him before letting herself into his stable.
  He seemed to understand what she needed and moved to plonk himself down on the hay, Aleron came to sit beside him, curling up at his side and leaning into him, she looked tiny beside him, like a fragile child.
  She soon found herself slipping into sleep as the sun rose outside of the ranch walls, she was on the coven lands now, but for now she just wanted to sleep and she found comfort in her new companion.

[Cale Stark]

Stark's eyes followed Aleron's movements, hesitant and withour confidence as she stepped onto dunknown territory; unlike the lively creature he'd met on the fields. He remained quiet and concealed; watching as she moved towards one of the horses. She seemed to have gone some trauma recently, it clung to her and exuded from her pores as much now as it had back then. To him Aleron was a fragile and frightened thing, he needed to handle it with care or it would bolt and break.

As the horse gave her permission to rest beside him he smiled at what a tiny thing she was, sleeping with the beasts. His body dropped onto quiet feet that didn't disrupt the ground or the animals; a strange and agile movement for such a big man. His hands held out in soothing gestures as he approached the horse and the pale one at its side. "Yer tresspassin' lass. An' these here are bigger than squirrels. Best not to remodel their homes."

[Aleron]

Aleron's mind was too tired to hear the heartbeat of the man, or let his scent reach her nose, her eyes gently closed beside the horse as her mind fell into sleep.
A moment later, she didn't know how long, a voice broke through her slumber, she shot up in an instant, her hands held out, palms up, with electricity running through them, ready to attack.
  Red eyes found Stark's until she realised who it was, she had had no control of herself there for a moment, it was just an instinct but as she looked him up and down a soft smile curved her lips and she re-played his words in her head.
Lowering her hands she half nodded, in her own way apologising for the little bout of hostility he was met with, ''Hello squatty.'' She laughed, ''No, no remodelling here.'' The stallion stood and bent down nudging his head against her, demanding attention, ''Meet my new friend.'' Her now un-electrified hands began to stroke and scratch the horse affectionately. ''Are you not trespassing too?'' She did not know if he had some sort of alliance with the vampire coven here, or perhaps he was part of it in some way, whichever it was, Aleron couldn't say she was disappointed to see him, in fact she was glad they had bumped into each other again.

[Cale Stark]

Stark's brow rose at her hostile greeting. That was new. He thought they had gotten along just fine. Guess it wasn't mutual. That disagreeable scene went away quickly when Aleron appeared to recognize him at last. His gaze moved to the attention seeking stallion, alphas never changed no matter where they went. Stark was still a pretty laid back kind of guy. "Squatty? 'Least ya ain't calling me stumpy." He chuckled and rubbed his palm against his scalp. A clear sign of aggravation for those that knew him.

"Oi'm familiar with a kitten residing 'ere. She's talked the lot'o 'em into not eatin' me. What are ye doin' here? Come ta stay? I can 'ave Xiomara vouch fer ya." He came closer to the stallion and stood beside Aleron, running his palm against the creature's muzzle and to its big cheeks before patting the mane. "Son' gor horses where I come from. Nothin' but Polar bears ta ride. An' they're nasty bastards. Ta be honest, ye don' want to stay 'ere 'leron. There be vampires."

[Aleron]

A small laugh left her as she continued to pet the horse, ''No, Stumpy sounds insulting. You don't deserve such an insult.'' Aleron's gaze moved away from Stark briefly, she felt guilty about her reaction to him before but at the same time she did not know what she was doing and it didn't seem to bother him all that much.
He seemed very level headed, Aleron knew if she was met with such hostility she would not know what to do, having had no real experience with any violence in her life so far. Pushing those thoughts aside she again realised that she felt secure around him, she could never fully know of course, but she felt as though he would not and did not want to harm her.

Meeting his eyes once more, she listened wondering who or what he had meant by Kitten, maybe one of these mythical creatures in here? Or perhaps it was just a term he used for a woman? She was clueless on the matter, felt vulnerable. ''I was adviced to seek out the coven, I'm...'' She paused but then realised that for him to say what he did then he must know about vampires, ''I'm a newly turned vampire and I don't have a clue what I am doing or what I should be doing half the time.'' She felt as though she could be honest with him, and so she was. ''I do not know this Xiomara, but thank you.'' A slight bow of her head to him, she was grateful for his offer to help her, he didn't have to do that.
She watched him stroke the horse with a smile, to her the way an animal reacted to a person said a lot about them, ''Polar bears?'' She smiled at the thought of him riding one, was that even possible, to tame such a beautiful wild creature as that? ''So you come from somewhere cold eh?'' She did not expect him to tell him where, he was secretive about things on their previous meeting and so she would not care if he told her or not, it was not her business but she had a fondness for the cold, being born in winter, she had always found it favoured her.

[Cale Stark]

"I reckon squatty ain't much better, but I don' mind it comin' from you, volty." It was a horrible nickname and he started to laugh, shaking his head at the idiocy he'd created. "Mean no offense o' course, Oi'd never offend a lady in front of a 'orse. He'd kick me." Smiling je patted the creature's mane and let Aleron have her space. He leaned against one of the stall doors and crossed his arms, looking towards the other animals while he listened.

When Aleron revealed that she was a vampire he just gawked at her then whistled. "Course I knew ye were one. But I can't very well make a lass spill 'er secrets all in one day. Otherwise how're we s'pposed to keep bumpin' into each other?" A hand raised and he waved her thanks away, he didn't want her feeling like she owed him anything. Besides, from what he'd seen she wouldn't need it. They'd welcome her immediately since she wasn't here to take anyone away. Something about her story bothered him and he rubbed his chin in thought. "Who told ye 'bout this place, 'Leron?"

Nodding to her disbelief of Polar bears he smiled enough to show his teeth. His fingers obscured their points but he shrugged. "Aye. The Southern Oi'ce caps, should visit sometime. Best snow cones in the world."

[Aleron]

Aleron nearly choked when he called her 'volty', ''Nice, very nice.'' She said with a grin that met her eyes, ''I was thinking more something like electro girl.'' She burst into laughter then, of course she was joking, she just liked to tease him a bit.
''Yeah, you would boy wouldn't you? You'd look after me.'' She spoke in a mushy voice to the stallion and pecked his cheek, a gentle neigh was his response.
Aleron's eyes followed Stark, but she remained where she was, stroking the horse, she didn't think he would let her give her full attention elsewhere, being the 'diva' that he was.

''Oh, so you want to keep bumping into me then?'' She smiled, she was glad that he knew what she was already, that meant he knew more about all of this craziness then she did. She thought to herself a moment, her mind drifting before he pulled her out of her thoughts.
His question caused her to pause, Taz had become a friend to her and she wasn't sure if she should tell anyone anything regarding him, potentially putting him in danger but she looked to Stark for a moment and decided she could tell him, ''A human told me, he helped me on my first day here, put me up and took care of me. He said this would be the best place for me to go.'' Her eyes gave away her emotion, her pain of that first day but she did not want to talk about it, Taz had guessed, she had never actually told him what she had done to her family and every second it was killing her.

Aleron coughed slightly and blinked a few times to try and regain herself, ''The Southern Ice caps?'' She tried to picture them, ''Maybe I will, you can teach me how to ride one of those Polar bears and we can build snowmen.'' She chuckled imagining this big, macho guy building snowmen and playing in the snow.