Acolyte
Acolyte
From early days as a foal, he had always attended services to the goddess Epona with his dam and sire. Unfailingly, he listened intently to the beautiful music of the elderly stallion at the pulpit-singing with a silver gilded candle in one hand, a solid gold wheat sheaf in the other.
This life would be his for he so loved Epona and all of equine kind. They had their quirks, but there was elegance in the citizenry of equine stock as well. Little Sesan the snow puff well knew these truths as he attended solstice classes, paid the old stallion some time for volunteer work as an altar colt, and aspired to remember the truths of Epona the divine mare as though she had lived inside of his very being.
Years had passed and the gangly little colt boy with the pure silken fur and tail was granted the reward of his faith when the old priest laid down his robes and his soul fled for her pastures not three days after.
Saddened, but he allowed the memory to stay within him just as the teachings decreed that the old priest would graze well in her lush fields for the rest of eternity.
Now, after his latest sermon, he cast his gentle patient blue eyes over the many unicorn alicorn styled candles of ivory and spiralling silver-blowing them out with deep slow reverent breaths; his silent prayers carried to Epona herself on the fine pink wisps of smoke.
"Sesan?"
The soft voice behind him was almost unheard-even amongst the silence of the abbey. Turning, the white horse appraised the visiting priestess with a light lifting grin of his muzzle as the shadow of the last candle danced on his shiny silken cheekbone.
"Lady Kilana. Services and prayers are over, I'm afraid." He observed, straightening out his ornate gold and silver embrossed belt about his immaculate clean white robes.
"Prayers? And who hath to pray to men-on behalf of men?" She remarked, arms tucked into her burgundy wide sleeves like the wizened stance of an ancient sage.
Calmly, Sesan turned to blow out the last adorned spiral candle, leaving the temple in almost utter darkness.
"Men have their own gods. Let them not be bothered by ours. They once respected her so many a time ago, but no longer-apparently they wish gods in their own image just as we do. It's nothing shameful, Kilana."
She pulled a fresh vellum scroll from her sleeve.
"Take this-read it-burn it. Whatever you wish. It is a report on the state of men signed by the great matriarch herself."
Sesan cast his eyes curiously on the parchment at that mention, his hand reaching nervously forth for it-and then Kilana was gone with a swat of her graceful black tail as she turned to trot off.
'It was determined in various proceedings that Epona's human herd hath left her graces gradually over the course of many centuries, and now it seems that her divinity has all but been forgotten in their memory save in legend.
-SilverSword, Epona high Matriarch-'
Startled, he rolled it up. Reciting that men had no interest and actually reading it from her holiness to the goddess were two different things, and the latter ever sobering.
Animated, he turned toward the silver gilded bust of Epona's great face-her eyes gold...and crying.
"My goddess. I was a fool to dismiss the importance of such a travesty. I will make arrangements to visit the world of men in hope that believers of our way will still be able to see me with their eyes."
In older days, Her priests and priestesses were only visible to the numbers of mankind who had faith in her compassion, and for those who did not believe, Her representatives would not appear.
So Sesan received his body in a baptismal pool much later that night-soaking his fur and skin in the glimmering bright waters until his frame shoan with vibrant spectral light.
"As she decrees, only the faithful will cast their eyes upon my body-and all others will not see but what they wish to, which is nothing."
In a blinding flash of quicksilver light, he was laying in the fresh straw of a stable, a four footed equine right beside him; nickering in a friendly manner toward him.
He stood up-naked-stroking her neck and chin.
"You know who I am. Perhaps this is encouraging."
Removing himself from the stall with one last kiss on the curious mares' lips, he left the stable and went toward the nearby house-then decided against it.
"I will go to a city of men; surely some of them will see me." Sesan remarked, flirting his tail elegantly.
In the city of men, he was careful to avoid their mechanical carriages-even invisible, he wasn't invulnerable. Turning into one alley, one man in stained clothes and drinking from a green bottle wrapped in brown vellum turned toward him in surprise.
"I must be really drunk!" The man grumbled out, wiping vomit on his sleeve.
Frustrated, Sesan went past him and further down the alley, coming to the street on the other side where lied a church for their god.
Curious, he went in and saw that it was very similar to how he would hold a service except men were praying not to Epona, but another man who had died for their innumerable sins.
Sesan sighed. According to Epona, there was no sin; it was all how humans were made-a little good and a little bad so they knew what bad was. Animals couldn't sin for the things they did, so how was it that humans COULD? He was confused.
Leaving the church, he wanted to go back to his world and never return. The human religion disgusted him; placing blame where there should be none to have.
"Epona accepts us for the wickedness of our nature and loves us always no matter what we do. She is our mother; she is the mother to everyone-divine mare and we are her beloved foals...always."
He wanted to leave-in fact he was about to go back to the stable and transport himself back to his temple, but he heard a strange cry. A cry unlike any animal he had known, and so he curiously followed it until he came unto a dumpster-
And sitting on black shiny foul-smelling bags was a tiny human.
"What?!"
Then he truly had doubts in epona's forgiveness of all living beings; no mother COULD do this to her offspring-it was unthinkable.
Surprised, Sesan looked on as the baby reached out for him and cried further.
"You can...you can see me?" He was flustered.
"How?" He went forward to pick up the human baby in his arms.
What would he do? He couldn't leave the baby here, and he didn't know what he should do with a child when the world of men was confusing and he had no idea what their ways were anymore.
Then his eyes softened with a newfound mercy and love-along with an inclination he knew the divine mare had blessed him.
"I will take you back with me. Make you my foal and I will be your sire."
Licking the childs forehead, he went on back to his temple with a promise of protection and love from the goddess herself. For so she had wished it, so shall he do to honor her faith in him.
It had been a long and awkward eight years raising this tailless foal.
"To love her is to be a part of her spirit." The child quietly repeated as he swept up the floors between the benches and busily worked to make a giant pile of multi-colored horsehair; the leavings from the departing congregation.
It was the end of the winter season, so everyone would be shedding a great deal-except for Izan; he would keep the same amount of hair he always had year round.
"Are you done there, Izan?" Sesan mused, adjusting his rounded glasses (age had crept strangely upon him) as he listened to the light howling music of the draft coming through the temple.
Many centuries, the architects had built it with special sealable openings that would allow the wind to lightly blow through and make a harmonious litany worthy only of the voice of Epona; for the wind and the breeze were her music.
"Yes, Father. Just a little more and I'll have it all." Izan remarked as he swept.
"Come take a break. I wish to speak to you." The stallion puffed out his white robes and smiled as the visiting light breeze tousled his mane and the black bow holding some of it in place.
Izan looked back at his work, laid the broom on the armrest at the end of one of the seating rows and strode calmly forth in the proud lope of equine grace.
The beautiful white horse looked him over, unable to believe this was the child he had found so many years lying in garbage.
"Are you truly content to be here? To serve her will? I want only your happiness, Izan, and if it is a dream outside of the faith, I wish only to help you pursue whatever design you have."
"What am I?" He asked, uncertain as his eyes sailed over the wildly flickering alicorn candles like the breeze itself; passing them over with only brief attention.
Sesan almost had a heart attack when he heard that. In no other circumstance did he ever hear his adopted son say such a thing, nor ever hint at such curiosity. There was always something lonely in Izan's eyes, but it was so vague it could be anything. Izan wanted to be told he was different, why he was different, many unanswered truths.
Sesan didn't know how to proceed in answering his son-not at first. He took in a long breath and blew it from his nostrils with a tired blustery sigh.
"Izan..."
He looked over the pulpit, the glimmering dim candles, the silver embellished walls, and the fountain springing forth behind the altar of her face; where molten silver pored forth from her mouth and into a waiting pool as gently as a trickling stream.
Thus with silver, she had equally filled him with her words; the precious wisdom flowing from his own mouth.
"You are special. You are the child chosen by her in the world of men to be her devoted colt. She had led me to you-amongst the sinful mazes-amongst the taint of blasphemers and beggars-to a...manger...where you could easily be rescued from the world which forsakes her love."
He became studious, his face contemplating the sudden bestowed answers.
"My kind-men-forsake her?" Izan finally responded, shrugging in disbelief.
Sesan well knew the boy-colt couldn't understand why; Izan had been raised with her love always. Ever since he could hear the words of his prayers-ever since he could hear the music of her very breath through the temple.
Xenophon was probably one of the last men wise to her ways before
her teachings left the world to be replaced by others that were more tempting. Why worship a horse when you can worship a man?
"Your kind found someone else. I don't agree with the teachings, but it is their choice and they must be left alone."
Izan frowned, going back to sweeping as Sesan contentedly watched. The fur had been collected into a confusing colored mass of fuzz. When Izan went to throw it out as he usually did, Sesan stopped him.
"Not this time child. I have something else in mind for all that hair."
Izan raised a speculative eyebrow but said nothing, collecting the fur into a bag he had been given and handed it back to Sesan who went to his study with a pat on his apprentices' head.
Another eight years had passed since that special moment. Izan had become wise in the ways of the priesthood, now bucking excitedly for his journeyman robes like any frolicking yearling.
The graduation from apprentice to journeyman of Epona was a very private ceremony.
Normally.
Today, rather, there was a special gift to bestow to the human foal goddess Epona had discovered in the other realm. Indeed, her boon and the boon of the congregation would be granted him on this very special day, though the youthful creature knew it not.
Izan fidgeted nervously; rubbed his arms as he looked shyly across at Sesan in his full ceremonial vestments.
Seated curiously in all rows of seating afforded the temple were enough faithful equines from many miles in all directions.
This was a rare moment; too special to remain hidden from their eyes and downy attentive ears. It had been thousands of years since a human learned to be an acolyte of the goddess, and though she tested all of her believers rigorously, in the end, they were proven worthy in her eyes-and the eyes of their kin.
Sesan hoped Izan would earn these special robes in which he was being presented; he had the weight of the community upon his shoulders.
"My son. This moment is bittersweet in my heart. I had wished more time to watch you grow up, and yet, part of me wanted to see this destiny hasten."
Izan barely dared to breath; his body shaking with nervous energy like that of a racehorse ready to spring from the gate. It could be seen in his eyes-he didn't know what was going on, but he knew it was important.
"I made a promise to the goddess herself that I would raise you-love you as my own-and every second it was as though I had been given a great honor."
The stallion turned very slowly with grace and a gentle flick of his tail, lifting the lid from a wide white plain box........
And laid beautifully inside were the vestments of a journyman of Epona; white fur glistened like ivory in the glimmer of the dull candles.
"When you wear these robes, there will always be a duty to fulfill to all of those who helped make them."
Izan looked on as Sesan carefully lifted the clothing from the box and the inner lining was made up of a mottled mix of many colors of woven hair-
And then Izan was a smart enough child to understand why he hadn't been throwing away the winter coat sheddings left all over the floor ever since his eighth birthday.
"The weight of the community is upon you. As long as you wear these robes, their warmth shall comfort you and always remind you not only of Epona's faith in you, but theirs as well."
Izan swallowed hard, standing awkwardly in disbelief as Sesan came toward him with that finely crafted garment. There was great power and love in their making, and that alone deserved his silent reverence.
"Have you nothing to say son? Perhaps you will be a mute like Hedrich the speechless." Sesan chided with an amused whinny.
"She watches from these shoulders. Let me be worthy, father."
Sesan smiled with pride, a few tears escaped his eyes. Yes, he would be a good priest of her way-a man who had her love pouring through his soul like silver itself.
The breeze blowing through that temple seemed only to sing praise of him that day-a music strangely absent for hundreds of years. It was a particular song he was pleased to hear, for she was truly content. If not content with the state of mankind, then certainly with one in particular who was only too pleased to pray to her and keep her gentle wisdom to his heart as long as he had breath in his body.
There was but a few days away from Izan becoming a full acolyte of Epona-then he would be ready to take over the congregation when Sesan himself retired; fortunately, he aged slow and that day wouldn't come upon him for decades yet.
No, it wasn't that Izan was almost complete in his teachings that concerned Sesan. Indeed, Sesan was troubled by undeniable feelings of a more mundane and earthly sort. The stallion was celibate-not by choice or because She so willed it; it was simply because he had no drive to pursue any mate or love interest outside of his main devotion to the goddess.
Sesan had become rather fond of his son-and that is what frightened him dreadfully. Sinking into him like bot fly larvae and eating his flesh, Sesan could not reconcile the strange feelings he had for his future replacement.
Feelings that go beyond fondness-feelings and emotions he only dedicated to an equal.
A mate.
Someone for sexual relations.
Sighing, he went to his bathroom to brush out his tail until it was all nice and silky like soft silver-dropping tiredly into his bed with not the ease nor the lack of worry for which comforted him most other days.
Bliss was having answers or having faith that the answers would arrive. That would not happen if his devotion were at war with his desire; a constant struggle for his heart and soul.
He didn't even know how to ask his apprentice-Goddess!-his apprentice; it felt so vile when he thought about it. He didn't even remember if any other follower of Epona had a relationship with another of the same gender, much less a different species.
"Goddess!" He screamed pitiously to the night; torn apart and tortured by the many betraying feelings.
He awoke in the morning to the sweetened smell of roasted oats, smacking his lips with eyes half closed.
Dragging himself from the bed, he dragged his shorts on and walked sleepily downstairs toward the kitchen.
It was a nice little two-story house attached to the temple. Almost everything had been painted in white or swathed in white curtains. It gave the place a nice comforting glow but Sesan didn't like the idea of how easy it was to stain something white.
Hot steam from apple tea wafted to his nose and he couldn't help but blush as he remembered the simple pleasure of drinking it on the many cold rainy nights.
"Izan! Your up early." Sesan stated, not sure how he should behave now that his lustful feelings had confronted him.
His hooves rang gleefully upon the wooden steps, his tail flicking involuntarily from side to side as if to keep away flies-or worse things.
Peering into the kitchen, he barely stifled a laugh as he saw Izan covered in dun-white oat powder and the pot almost boiling over with oozing slime.
"Not early enough for you though." The human remarked, spinning a wooden spoon in the pot to knock all the oatmeal back down.
"Of course not." Sesan remarked, winking with a bloodshot eye and a laugh. "I'd have to be a saint to wake up any earlier."
"I hope it was somewhat restful last night for you, father. You sounded troubled."
"Troubled." Sesan remarked. "This day has only begun and I am troubled. Nay, child, just a riddle-a choice. Life has many and we need to make one."
Izan yawned, pouring the oat gruel into two bowls and gave it a nice shake of salt and cinnamon.
"Tell me about it." Izan mused, pouring the tea and went to the small dining table to set everything up.
Gruel, tea, and sugar crackers. It was a humble breakfast, but more extravegant fare was unnecessary.
"I need to make a choice." Sesan offered, humming in pleasure as the first drops of the tea hit his tongue and exploded with mild apple flavor right down his throat.
He couldn't meet his sons' eyes as he ate and drank breakfast.
"A choice about me."
Sesan nervously shook; dropping his cup to the floor with a crash..."Yes." He finally managed.
The rest of the meal went along in silence up to the time when he went back to his room to change in his formal robes.
"I'm going to find an old friend. She'll help me sort it out-I hope."
He found her munching cabbage and shredded carrots from a bowl out in the park, a vendor nearby giving out all kinds of fresh tidbits for snacks.
"Kilana."
How fortunate it was she had been assigned to the city in her silver years-middle age.
She looked over with a friendly laugh and a gay shake of her mane from where she sat upon a stone bench.
"Sesan!" The slightly elderly creature waved him on, the scarlet of her robes making her look like Epona's own sunset.
He took a seat by her, but could not match her sincere outward friendliness.
She looked at his wrecked weak form, face softening with sympathy.
"I have things on my mind." He remarked, looking at the white and mottled colored pigeons explore all over the park and pecking for insects or different crumbs dropped by picnic goers.
Kilana shrugged her withers and flipped out her tail. "Clearly. Feel like talking about it?"
Sesan sighed; "Is there any greater vocation than to serve Her?"
"Not that I know." Kilana remarked, munching her cabbage bowl. "Are you leaving the priesthood?"
Sesan sighed, "I don't know. My heart has fractured."
They watched little horses-almost ponies-play in the flowering grasses and roll in the sand. Foals were always frolicking in this park and forgetting their cares. Youth was always so full of joy; even Izan was surprisingly spirited in his upbringing.
Perhaps that was why he liked the child so much-so much love and excitement in that energetic body.
"I love too much, but there is only room for one." Sesan finally remarked.
Kilana blushed and giggled. "Well, I didn't think you were so troubled over it." She mused, flirting that beautiful tail and batting her eyelashes.
"What?" Sesan asks, incredulous.
"I'm surprised it took you so long to propose." Kilana nickered out and utterly tried to attack him with her lips and her arms; her snack tumbling to the grass.
"Lady Kilana!" He snorted out, shocked and utterly repulsed. "I love another. Another I can NOT love!" He growled out, vexed.
Her eyes widened as she dragged herself off of him. "Huh?"
"Bloody hell, mare! I love my adopted apprentice!" He finally announced.
"Ohhhhhh." Her eyes wandered around in nervousness as the truth came out.
"I can't love Epona and I cannot love Izan both." Sesan finally uttered in a strangled painful cry. "Who would you choose?"
Kilana snorted and shrugged. "Let me ask someone who knows. No one in the priesthood has seen something like this for a very long time."
The morning left him empty well into the afternoon. He might sit around in the park thinking except he had a midday service to prepare for.
He approached his temple with a tickle of breeze messing his mane; leaves and bits of stuff clinging haplessly on. The wind was strong today; such warranted only a few reasons-it was HER will that something change today.
Change.
What would she intend to see different in the world?
The wind intensified and he looked on in sheer terror as the tree-a tree which grew by the temple for hundreds of years-slowly began to tilt until the enormous weight of it brought the tree down the rest of the way-
And crashed down through the roof of the temple-
Immediately fear shown in his eyes as he uttered a panicked shriek for all to hear; a scream all horses were familiar for making in times of terror and uncertainty-uncertainty playing through Sesan's mind of only one thing...
Izan...
His eyes lit up as he realizes a possible inescapable truth. As the roof groans from the heavy weight and begins to cave inward with a loud moan of aged timber-the final eruption of noise was accompanying a cloud of dust as the temple collapsed inward with only two of the walls intact.
"Izan!" He screamed among the resigned crumpling of plaster and debris.
His temple had been devastated and all he could think about was the possibility his son was dead.
Eyes searched the wreckage-piercing through the wind-blown branches of the side fallen tree. It was a deep pain; one his heart could not recognise readily. It felt as if someone had taken him by the hand and let him fall down a cliff to the dimness far below.
His thoughts were at a standstill-should he go in to try to see if Izan was alright-or should he wait till others came?
Another fear came into his mind and that was the candles. He didn't know if any had been lit prior to the accident and was well aware a fire could soon start if the wind offered the least amount of favor.
A ragged wind smashed through the whole mess, and it looked like it had easily blown out all the small fires before they could be a serious problem.
"Father!"
Behind came a thud as Sesan turned in time to see the apples and different food begin to roll from a wicker shopping basket, his apprentice running up a cobblestone street to see him-
And what happened.
"It's..." He began uncertainly as he appraised the disaster that had been his home ever since birth it seemed.
"Okay." Sesan remarked, relief flooding his body with a sudden flood of nervous energy as hope crashed into his face. "It's all okay, son. We can rebuild...just need to go to the Matriarch to ask for money to fix the temple."
Sesan took only a few hours to fill up two journeyman packs before they began on a long many-mile trek to the great mare herself; ear to the goddess and mouth-peice of the divine one.
The road they travelled was unpaved, but it was dusty and well-beaten with centuries of age and frequent use. Among the twists of this meticulous and courteous path-a road that twined around the many trees did they travel and converse of common things for which minor opinions were not vested.
It was through these seemingly innocent and innocuous words that Sesan put the random question which would allow him to judge his apprentices' thoughts for the inevitable question that would arise.
"Oh, and another thing I wish to put before you-um..." Sesan struggled with the weight of the words as much as the burden of his robes.
"Yes, father? I find it disconcerting how one of HER priests finds difficulty in having the right words to say. Normally, SHE seems to provide you the silver of the tongue." Izan pointed out, humorfully questioning his mentor's faltering speech.
Sesan coughed in polite rebuke and found himself about to fail in answering his acolyte-
When they heard the clearest watery chime of a bell they had ever heard.
"Strange..." Sesan mused, cocking an ear toward the noise.
The forest could easily be a tormented heart with its many complicated twists and little known trails. So too could the beat of Sesan's relaxed hollow-hooved equine gait and Izan's heavy thudding feet. The two went on the same road but sounded as if they went upon different paths.
One such way brought them upon the gleaming scattered bits of a gleewoman's travelling cart-polished and blackened trinkets and a conniving pair of teal starry eyes. Much secrecy in that face, Sesan immediately determined.
"Fortunes and charms for weary travellors?" She cackled, an enigmatic strange sparkle in her eyes.
Having walked for only a few hours, the pair of questing zealots were hardly as tired as they had been described.
The old mare hunched over her cane, quiet patience in her stance which could allow her to stand there for years if need required it.
Sesan questioned the value of her many wares just as he did not bide by the possible dishonesty of her tongue. Despite his reservations of being tricked, he humored the offer with mirth and decided that he had the money available to accept her unique offer.
It would soon be an offer he couldn't be refuse by the next scratchy insightful words from her hoarse throat-vague and veiled, but he knew what she spoke of.
"Your heart faces a troubled stream, ey?" She mused.
Sesan faced her casually; the wind plucking lightly at the loose strands of his mane. Leaves and pink paper-thin blossoms fluttered to the ground like a dreamy rain rain of color.
"Yes-um...how much do you want...if you can-can..." He began to utter out nervously.
She looked around toward Izan and calmly gave a bluster from her nose. "How much do I want if I solve your problem?"
Sesan simply nodded.
"Nothing. I can give you advice but I can't solve your problem-you and your acolyte must sort it out with each other." She responded, her eyes tired and half closed, but the pupils filled with a responsive pool of energy.
The trees creaked from a strong breeze, twigs falling down and getting matted in their manes and hair. Her cart of pots and metal-wares clinking against each other like deep hollow bells-howls of steel and abyssmal darkness.
"But it isn't just about me-and him...its about HER." Sesan declared lightly.
She gave a deep blow from her nose. "Then you must ask yourself what SHE would approve. I think that there is room in the kind heart for dedication to our goddess and someone else-why else would we have marriage?"
"Marriage?" Izan jumped in, his curiousity aroused. "Do you intend to marry Kilana? Is that why your so restless?"
Sesan felt plainly annoyed for confusing his apprentice further, taking one last brief look into the ancestral mare's eyes before departing.
"Expect rain tonight. Expect lots of rain." The gypsy creature warned with an amused light whinny-
-like a clear bell.
They both turned about to look at her-but there was no sign of the mare or her cart.
"Strange magic works here. Did we meet a witch or ghost or some other being?" Sesan wondered aloud.
A damp chorus of clouds fell upon them like howling dogs in the wind and they knew that at least one part of her prophesy was correct.
"Rain will be on us soon. Let's go find somewhere to escape it." Izan offered, the glimmer of his eyes faded by the ghastly drenching murk of the overpowering clouds above as dark as giant wet cotton swathes used to clean out a chimney.
It was nigh on them as night approached on a deep roll of purple curtain above, flanked by the occasional patch of moon or starlight between a mottled covering of threatening bleak grey.
Twigs snapped in greater frequency and the occasional deer could be heard rustling away in the distance. Birds silenced their songs as the giant orange slipped below the purple haze like a bed of gods.
Soon, they came across a cave as a downpour like a waterfall erupted upon them unexpectedly; drenching them in miserable wetness as the cold dark mouth welcomed them inside to an almost inhospitable shelter.
As cold as they were, the cave spared them the direct breeze and flood as they walked deeper inside and gathered dead leaves from the floor to strike up a fire.
Sesan shook wildly and removed his robes, setting them down on the floor with the inner lining facing out so that he had someplace to sit as he peeled out of his more informal attire just as Izan was digging through their oversized packs for the oil and flint they kept for the lamp and the occasional candle.
The tiny spark shone in all loneliness as they watched it slowly take up confidence in the provided tinder-erupting slowly out into a small bonfire like an orange genie; flanked by an odd arrangement of stones to contain it.
Sesan's eyes flashed like gems in the dull sunset-like glow as his fur had been enshrouded in a golden cloak of light all over his now bare body.
His clothes had all soaked through, but the horsehair layer from both sets of formal robe/cloaks managed to stay remarkably dry given the circumstances, just as his own coat began to easily reject the water with every unevem waft of heat from the fire.
Izan stood there a little awkward, debating with himself as he stood there in his ruined clothes. Even for a human raised by a horse, he still lacked that fluid comfort of nudity which he didn't full understand.
"You going to stand in those wet clothes all night?" Sesan whispers lightly, staring up at him thoughtfully as he took a pot and began to boil water for tea.
A howl of wind came into the cave with a fresh burst of cold; splattering the human's back with a wall of rain almost as dire and harsh as a frozen sythe.
"Maybe...maybe I should-but no peeking." Izan offered shyly.
Sesan laughed at the absurdity of that statement; "We're going to be naked all night and your worried about me wathcing you de-clothe yourself? Strange creatures, humans, every one!" He declared boisterously with the true booming whicker of a stallion.
Izan blushed when he realized his silliness, dropping his fine white woolen shirt like a lump of clay onto the ground, wiping wet long hair from his eyes as he wiggled out of his pants and kicked them to the side a few feet away.
He stood there somewhat woodenly with a numb look on his face like he didn't know what was happening nor what do do next.
Sesan rose, testicles and tail bobbing in the air as his lithe feminine muscles rippled under his skin. His body was that of a runner; it definitely showed.
Not missing a beat by his apprentice's dumbstruck look, he took the others' robe and set it down on the ground opposite him about the cackling little fire.
Izan gave it no more thought than a ghost as he wearily sat his ass down on the plush fur in front of the lightly sweet-smelling blaze, acrid smoke flushed into his lungs somewhat refreshing like the smell of apple wood in a furnace.
The fire rose out of its enclosure to the height of an emaciated foal just learning to walk his first steps. For the toddling little horse, that was an amazing four weeks!
For a long moment, his body was saturated by the hot waft of heat against his skin as eyes fastened on the little flickering flamelets with the curious wonder of where they were going as they separated from the giant fire itself.
For an eternity, Izan was content to let the fire pacify him with calm warmness as wind and rain howled outside from an entrance forty or so yards away.
His eyes met gold-the gold of light bronze and the sweet appearance of butterscotch. It was Sesan; he was elegant and unspoiled by the closeted world of grey stone, overcast skies, and natural desolation.
And it was eyes that met his equal to no other's gaze. Unmatched stare of a god incarnate-such wanting and transcendence in that look the longer he stared. Mystery and wisdom passed into him from one mere concentrated thoughtful glare.
"We're going to be in here for awhile." Sesan remarked, throwing tea leaves into the water of the roasting pot as dry leaves crackled underneath.
"Yes..." Izan admitted, not even sure where this was going.
Sesan moved himself to the end of his makeshift rug, motioning to his acolyte, "Why don't you come over here-I'm sure we could think of something."
Izan hesitated, now understanding what was being inferred; "But you love Kilana...we're travelling to ask HER for guidance-besides, it feels a little awkward to...to do that with you."
"Is it? Humans tend to make things more complicated than they should be. Have you not enjoyed a stallion in the role of a mare? I know a young fellow like you has been experimenting."
Izan blinked-this was more private than he cared admit.
"I'm a stallion first, and a priest second. SHE does not begrudge us our natural instincts, I've just had no interest in acting on them until recently." Sesan mused, stirring the pot and sniffing the air with a cute flehmen.
"Then it's true. I have had some thoughts like that. In my free time, I did some things with friends of both classes."
Sesan poured some tea into a pair of tin cups as he blew out a long calm breath. The clothes ruffled to firmness nearby as the heat of the fire permeated into their fine fibers.
It was a conversation on daggers, and Sesan was very close to either making it across or falling down. The peril soon arrived when the impatience drove itself into his thoughts like a screaming feral thing-a monster of instinct and he simply declared what was on his mind.
"I want to mount you."
Izan dropped his cup in surprise as the thickness of the words entered his brain.
"I-what?!"
The simmering war within himself erupted to the surface into a firefight and Sesan was uncertain if he could survive the assault.
"I just-I think about you...love you more than you could possibly know." Sesan slowly remarks, his heart beating faster than the utterance of his words.
Izan bit his lip nervously and turned away, shaking. "I just feel weird about it. You raised me from a very young time of my life. You became my father, I'm not sure you can be my lover."
The white stallion downed his tea in one long steaming gulp, trying to hide his recalcitrance. "Is it your heart whom spurns me, or your humanity? Humanity has no purpose in matters of the heart; it only gets in the way."
Sesan slowly rose from his robe-turned-mat and sat by his son, calmly facing the fire and not doing anything else.
"Izan, it is humanity that tells you to be ashamed of your body. It is what makes the world of Epona and HER herd so awkward to you. You have so much to learn-to let go of your reason must be as much a burden as having it in the first place."
Izan stiffened coyly as soft furred fingers raked delicately along his shoulder.
"But does SHE approve?"
Sesan felt along Izan's other shoulder, rubbing his muzzle lightly against the presented neck with an affection and caution. "It matters not as much as us. Do YOU approve?"
Izan reached up to feel the silky hand on his arm, leaning his cheek against the warm head by his.
"Is this how rain feels as it tries to sink into a mountain?" Izan remarks idly, feeling the hot breath by his nose.
"Rain waits years before it can penetrate the many layers into underground streams below, and from that waiting, that journey-rainwater is more sweet and pure than it ever has been before...do you...understand?" Sesan whispered kindly, licking Izan's neck like it had been coated with sugar.
Lightning thundered behind like whipcracks and exploding fireworks as the rain beat a heavy downpour of hoofbeats into the pulpy mass of mud encroaching all of the ground.
Izan reached back carefully, running his fingers over the silk-covered sides of his mentor as the stallion involuntarily shuddered from the sensation like electricity had shot through his body.
The human jerked and wiggled in surprise as the stallion seized him and pulled him down against him, spooning on the fine padded robe underneath as he giggled at the little nibbles on his ears and the tickling tongue on his cheeks.
Izan blushed as he felt the hotness of the equine sheathe rubbing idly against his asscheeks as if it had belonged there his whole life. The stallion went crazy with his affectionate licking and male "hrrr's" and whines of horsie bliss.
The crack of fire and the warmness of the naked body against his lulled Izan into an enchantment of passion-slowly woven into a combined tapestry that seemed to unite them both slowly every moment.
"Are you human or are you dancer, little one? Your heart knows the steps, just let it lead." Sesan whispers, continuing to lick as his hands explore Izan's body as innocently as possible; feeling along his chest and back as his over-endowed crotch warmed against a soft mound of rump as gently as sunrays on a Spring day.
"I'll dance with you." Izan replied, feeling the hands on his body and slowly turning himself about to look into the face of his teacher. "I want to be your partner."
Sesan thoughtfully looked into eyes as curious as wandering stones, his lips pursed out anticipating a different embrace entirely.
For the human, it was no longer awkward as he let his mouth wander over to the sweet scented fuzzy muzzle of the white stallion; the pink nares expiring air in expectation like the billowing of a train.
They melted together in the instant their tongues met, and no longer did it all seem so weird and reprehensible like they had both thought only hours before under a shattering hail of rain-now it felt like it was the most beautiful thing in the world.
Hot breath entered his lungs from his lover, making Izan shudder uncontrollably. It had been only yesterday that the youth had made the company of any young stallion friend who wanted to try him out-after all, Epona neither said that male sex was wrong, nor that a priest couldn't have sex.
This was not sex, they both knew. It was a spectacle, a force, a wave, a rising crescendo of some phantom they could not even name.
It was love.
Sesan rolled them over, not daring to break the kiss as Izan found himself straddled over the delicate equine's belly like some awkward giant belt.
Eyes gazed into eyes with wonder and lingering desire as a tiny pink thing began to poke at Izan's upturned and accessible butt.
A glaze of horse fluids began to squirt out and all over the presented rump like a tiny geyser; a hot flood of juice that made the human jerk in surprise as he felt it drip all over his rump.
"May I have this dance?" Sesan thoughtfully remarked, his eyes narrowing in a hushed pair of coy slits
Izan didn't look back-couldn't look back; his eyes mesmerized on the soft warm face before him-at the rise and fall of the furred chest, the pert pink nipples as hard as rocks. He could feel the rising organ against his ass like a rather hard broom handle, threatening penetration into his body at any moment.
Control left his body as he sank his cheeks over the stiffening rod and closed his eyes to savor the sensation of that hot long shaft sinking into his body with every new inch of erectness. It was an unstoppable spear of lust that pierced into his body-irresistable as the kiss that had awakened his body.
Then he gasped in surprise as it had finally penetrated his body to the sheathe, hot balls pulsing agains his butt and perineum with tiny bursts of pleasure as Sesan moaned lightly, anticipating what would come next.
Izan lowered himself against that welcoming white chest, rising and lowering on the pink cock as slow as he dared while the organ rubbed at his prostate cruelly with an enormous malice that threatened him to orgasm before the stallion under him.
He rode on the cock shamelessly, locked in position by affectionate embrace as the stallion took turns between kissing him deeply or grunting in pleasure as he was milked like a cow.
Great heat began to overtake his passage from the friction of the lubricated rubbing as a more personal heat melted into his skin from the stallion and was in turn expressed through his body with an impression of marish impatience as he rode the horse as fast as he could; ass rubbed raw with pleasure and filled with enough pre to make even being mounted by a draft possible.
The human shuddered helplessly as Sesan screamed in a loud feral way, erupting his fluids into his acolyte as Izan shook intensely from the hot scalding blast of horse seed coated all through his ass.
Sesan locked into the small body; enjoying the pressure over his spent cock as his tired body stiffened with cold from both his and Izan's cooling sweat. They lay stuck to each other under the calm warming force of the bonfire. Even as it slowly dies out in the course of the night, they never move-kissing and falling asleep together in the same entangled embrace of passion for what seemed forever.
The morning greeted Sesan like a soft blast of warm Summer air as the hot naked body on top of his reminded him of what had transpired the night before. His cock had already detracted back into his body sometime while he was sleeping, and he felt the cold sticky puddle of cum all over his sheathe and balls as Izan leaked sex juice all over him from a well-used ass.
Delicately nudging and nibbling at his lover, Sesan looked outside to see the fuzzy brightness lingering into the cave as he heard the sound of falling and crinkling dead leaves outside.
"Wake up, pretty. We have to go now."
Izan slowly awoke, fondly looked into Sesan's eyes, and gave the stallion a little lick on his fuzzy pink nose.
"Okay...hope our clothes are dry." Izan muses, slowly and temtuously rising from the horse's chest.
"Probably drier than we are." Sesan remarked mirthfully.
The arrangement that greeted them as they came upon the great chamber of the Matriarch was one of such surprise. Sesan had never come to this place before, and the great temple of Epona left him more awed than he could fathom.
Gold candles lit up with occasional red sparks, red silk bannerets billowed in the wind like elegant ballgowns. A great fountain bubbled up not with silver as Sesan had expected, but with what seemed a liquified rainbow-somewhat like a prism or a mixture of paints where each color was distinct and did not mix with the others.
The throne greeted them from forty or so galloplengths away like a fixture set apart from everything else. Statues of Epona in many positions and giant stained-glass portraits of HER flanked the chamber of the Matriarch like a congregation of angelic messengers; a constant reminder that the temple always belonged to Epona no matter what high Matriarch sat in the throne.
Sesan approached the old creature with trepidition and nervousness in his body like that of a high-strung race horse; muscles twitching with energy and uncertainty.
In their robes, both master and acolyte bowed before her with as much respect as possible.
"Why do you come before me?" She was so old, her eyes had gone gray with rheumy fog, but she could still make out the odd features of Izan.
"We come to ask for money to fix our temple. A great tree has fallen on it and we must rebuild." Sesan declared, deeply humbled with a nervous little twitch in his voice.
The Matriarch contemplated that a moment before breathing a great sigh from her nostrils in a long blustery gust. "It is an uncertain foundation that ruins a temple. Do you have issue with HER?"
"Indeed, I've come to ask of you something." Sesan responded, relieved to finally ask the greatest authority his most uncertain question.
"Epona does not interfere in matters of love-it is her purpose to guide us when we need faith and hope." The Matriarch declared, as though it had been a rule for centuries.
"You know my question?" Sesan asked, rebuked with surprise.
The Matriarchal mare laughed with amusement, cackling with a light whispery cough, "SHE knows your heart. Drop it, and be at peace, priest-now go to the coffers for the money you need..."
Just as he was about to leave, he heard her scratchy voice continue; "And enjoy your acolyte with the burden released from your soul."
Sesan smiled fondly with a nod as he looked into the eyes of Izan and simply said;
"I do."