Wild Ballator Hunts

Mortem has woken her up with news of a new species of Ballator being found, His Lady was ecstatic and immediately went out to the paddock to hear the news. When he described them however, His Lady couldn’t help but smirk and laugh. “Small ballators who live in caves and jungles and are under ten hands, with pretty bird like markings.They are endangered and very rare, one has been spotted that the EBS has given permission to tame for conservation. ” Mortem had said, in honesty it was so “early” for her, having been up the night before secretly making stable plans that all she really knew was she must have one.

“They sound adorable, and could easily fit in the house actually… I wonder” She did some pondering, patting the large white draft style Mountain stallion and then packed a bag with treats and magical items, called Faraday over at Faraday- Equestrian Center and portaled herself on over to go see her Vivitas was stabled/ visiting. The sun had long since gone down by the time she was done, and a very skittish Vivitas , stood in the stable tied to a post, beautiful riding/tracking tack on, mumbling to himself as his feet danced skittishly on the stable floor when he saw her. Her portal opened right in front of him accidentally, and he spooked slightly, still not used to the crystal watery giving way to her human form. She quieted the slightly spooked oriental, petting his brown champagne snout, kissing his tear shaped calva.

“It’s ok buddy we are going on a adventure”She said untying his reins and leading him back through the portal, hitching him to her fence as Mortem nickered from the far end.

“Where are we going? What are we doing? They got all my tack on and told me we are going on a adventure, I’m excited. Are you excited? Oh I hope we aren’t going through another portal those kinda scare me, how do those work?”Viva rambled off like the excited baby he was. Mortem rolled his eyes as his lady made a quick trip back into the house , grabbing a map and circling a section of the Democratic Republic of Congo. She quickly googled the conditions of the forest , and looked at Viva’s unprotected legs, shaking her head and running back into the house to brag some stockings to protect his legs from snakes and bites from bugs and any other natural inhabitants. His lady smiled, touching the grey colored dragon charm on his bridle, it jumping to life with bright blue colors, looking alive as it matched the bright blue twisted dragon bracelet she wore.

“We are going to the Jungle, to go find a new breed of Ballator, I’m very excited , and yes we are going through another portal. I can’t get into the magics here but I’ll tell you on the way.” She said petting his head as she got on after untying him. She snapped her fingers and another large portal opened. The other side looked dense and luscious and filled with bird song and vibrant greens.( At least as far as they could see)  Viva cautiously stepped through, his eyes widening as they stepped into the darkness of the Congo rainforest. She let out a low whistle and small white quartz chips from her bag floated out above them, lighting the way ahead on a path they could barely see, or would not have seen if not for the chips.

“We sure it safe?” Viva asked, his purple eyes looking back at His lady, who slowly hooked a long machete to the side of his saddle. His eyes widened and she patted him under the white chip light.

“This is for safety, from big jungle cats, and to cut down any roots or branches I cannot move with magic, I don’t like to carry weapons, but you never know.” He let out of sigh of relief and continued , his hooves making gentle clip clopping sounds in the mud and stone path. As they moved forward along the path, the stones that floated a few feet above them gently floated back down into his Lady’s pack, every hundred fifty feet or so, they had to stop, as all the chips had gone back into the bag. Again they would float out and light the jungle night.

It was weird for the local flora and fauna, the lights slightly confusing the bats the dived around eating insects, the sugar gliders and snakes ran for it when the lights came to shine upon them. It was soon they could see the tracks of a odd sort, three toed and deep in the muddiest parts of the path, were overturned logs were. Obviously tusks of some kind had dug into the rotting log, scrapping and devouring any bug life they had found, although grubs and beetles still spilled out of the rotting log.

It was then that something scrambled past Viva, nearly making him rear. His lady took the reins, not really using them , but grabbed on to them so she did not fall off. Viva splashed in the mud, getting his stocking legs covered in mud and dirty muck.

“What do you want here. This is MY turf . MINE you hear me, you ...what ever are you ? You know what doesn’t matter, these are MY grubs. IN MY HOME. GO AWAY.” A rather high pitch and aggressive voice said, as the small brown lilliput came out of the darkness, her eyes glowing back from the light of the quartz. She had small white spots randomly all over her body, and her black mane was fluffed up to the max as her tail wagged, not happily by the way, back and forth.

Vivitas stood a two feet over this intimidating little Lilliput mare, who brustled her should manes and puffed up as much as she could.

“Actually we came here to meet you, hoping you would come home with us, I even brought some treats, to at least offer as you listen to my story and well offer of a home.” His lady said, slowly getting off as the orange eyed little Lilliput watched with wide eyes, as she opened her pack and offered fat wiggling worms the size of her fingers.