The Park, Friday afternoon

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan had been grazing on the dorm lawn when he'd caught the scent. It was faint, distant, but still he'd known it. It was a unicorn.

Heart racing, he'd followed it, nose lifted into the breeze, trotting through Fandom's streets until there, in the distance, he'd seen him: another stallion, as dark as Jan, but thinner, taller.

With a glad cry, Jan sprang into a canter, sliding to a stop in front of the other unicorn. It was a unicorn, one of Jan's people, and so it never occurred to him that this might be one of the denizens of the bad island.

Which was a shame, really.

[ooc: initial thread locked to me, la, but after that, Korr will still be in the park if you want to be threatened/chased/injured by a crazy unicorn.]

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[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Korr watched his son, neither moving away nor moving to greet him. He'd known the boy was here, but seeing him - Renegade, Ringbreaker, his reckless ways responsible for Korr current situation - flooded him with anger.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Surprised and uncertain at the lack of response, Jan dipped his horn in greeting. "I never thought to see another unicorn here," he said, ears curving forward "I thought I was the only one. My name is--"

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Korr cut him off. "You think I wouldn't recognise you?" Did the boy think to play him for a fool? "I know who you are. Jan, whose reckless ways brought Alma's curse down upon the herd." Korr half reared and struck the earth with his hooves. "Do not play the fool with me," he hissed.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Shocked, Jan shied away. "You know me?" he asked, eyes wide, the edge of the whites showing. "Who are you? Who am I?" His tail lashed. "Please, you must tell me."

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

With narrowed eyes, Korr paced around him, smelling the truth of Jan's words. Jan knew not who he was. "I," Korr said, head held high. "Am King and best beloved of the great Alma, whose law binds us all. And you--" He snorted once with contempt. He had loved his son once, long ago, before the boy had led them all into ruin. "You are corrupter and betrayer," he shrilled. "Weanling sop who led the unicorns away from Alma's laws. Your name is a curse!"

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan was trembling, and he backed away, shaking his head in denial. "No." It was all he could say, and so he said it again, and again. "This cannot be."

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Korr stood, still as stone, head held high and proud. "You dare to doubt me? I am Korr, of the sacred line of Halla, and you are nothing."

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Drawing a deep breath, Jan forced himself to stop trembling. "Korr." And the other stallion didn't smell right. Up close, there was a taint, like the cloying scent of rotten fruit, and it made him shudder. "I must doubt you. You speak of corruption and betrayal, yet you will not tell me who I am. Who are my sire, my dam, my shoulder-friends? What is my true name? How came you to this place?"

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

"Alma has punished you at last." Korr sounded deeply satisfied. "You bent her Law and flouted her will and tempted others to follow you. It is fitting that you do not know who you are."

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan stood, staring at Korr. The other's words were insidious, creeping inside to settle in his heart like a curled serpent. He would not, he could not, believe them.

He couldn't speak, he could only stare.

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Korr laughed, a dry, wheezing sound. "And tomorrow you will face me in the Tournament, and you will lose."

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

"I will not battle against you." Jan's voice was quiet, but his words were firm. Unicorns did not fight their own kind, not in earnest. Play fighting, a warrior's training, yes, but not in earnest. Whatever Korr accused him of, Jan would not fight him.

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Again, that horrible airless laugh. "As if I'd fight a half-grown sop like you. No, Jan, we will dance. The ancient dances of our people. The ones we have danced for a thousand years. And if you falter, you will lose."

Truly, he was best beloved of Alma, for her to ensure his victory by stripping his son's memory of his past. Jan had once been among the best of the dancers, and now he would be nothing but a stumbling foal.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

"And if I refuse your challenge?" he asked, much the same thoughts running through his head. He remembered no dances, no ancient steps.

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

"Then I will be declared winner, and we will take this island for our own." Korr slammed one hoof into the ground, digging a deep furrow. "It should not take long to rid it of the plague of humans infesting it."

Not that he'd be allowed to be rid of them all, but there were certain to be one or two that would not be needed once the island was theirs.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

"I accept your challenge," he ground out, ears flat and teeth bared. He liked humans, they were kind and harmless, even if they stared at him, and he lived in constant fear of accidentally trampling one. Imagining the damage Korr could inflict made Jan's stomach churn. He lowered his horn in clear warning. "You are not to harm anyone on this island."

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Korr stared at him, nostrils flaring red. "They are safe enough until the tournament is complete." Where safe enough meant not safe at all.

[firebringerborn.livejournal.com]

Jan backed away, one step then another, unwilling to turn his back on Korr. Only when his hooves rang on cement did he turn away, whirling around to bolt back to the dorms.

[rottentothekorr.livejournal.com]

Unmoving, Korr watched until Jan was out of sight. Once, he had loved his son, until the pied wych had seduced him and then birthed abominations into the world. It was her fault he had lost his son.

"Alma's curse on them all," he muttered, and dropped his head to tear at the grass.