In the eyes of the beast -a gangrel story

Chapter 4 Humanity, or close to it?

The sound of thundering of hooves grew closer, Florian laughs as the gray-mottled Lipizzaner flies over the logs and continues along the well-trodden path in the middle of the forest.

He effortlessly follows the horse movement when she takes the next jump and continues onwards.

A raven seems to follow them as they race, suddenly with unnatural speed zips by.

Shortly after he can see how two horses and their riders appears further ahead on the path. A chalk-white mare with a tall woman on, and a black akhal-teke whose rider is hidden by the horse's raised head. The black horse pedals nervously, but keeps pace with the white. The woman seems to notice Florian's presence, even more so when the raven flies up to her and sits on her shoulder.

Florian exclaims something shocked in a polish when he sees the raven land on the woman's shoulder.

Surprised he slows down the Lipizzaner so that they don't collide or scare the other horses.

He looks both nervous and curious, takes a half turn around them to get the horse down in trot and then walks slowly closer to them.

Florians blonde hair is sticking in every direction, no helmet or vest on only his clothes, a pair of white riding breeches with high boots and a slightly thicker blue jacket with a German well-known name from one of the larger horse breeders in the north eastern parts of Germany, Aegidienberger's equestrian knights.

Florian greets them uncertainly in German, though with a bit of a Polish accent. His horse shows that he is worried as she moves around nervously.

The raven flies away and circulates in the air, thirty meters up. The black horse stomps nervously sideways. On his back Florian can see a boy with tousled blond hair and amber eyes. He doesn't look older than six years, but looks almost cast on the horse. Both horses' saddles have large suitcases, the white mare more so than the black one. Both the woman and the boy are dressed in warm travel clothes, which looks really old. Around the woman's neck hangs a necklace with small glass bottles with some gray powder in it.

The woman with icy blonde hair waves to him, a soft smile on her lips. The boy says something to her in Russian, which she shakes her head at.

"Good afternoon." she says in Polish, with a clear Russian accent.

The black horse strokes his ears back and backs a few steps, throwing his head. The boy puts a hand on the side of its neck and it does not really calm down, but stops backing away.

Florian tries to calm down the mare he is sitting on but she steps a few steps back and she also has her ears back. "Lugn" he says slowly to his mare in Swedish.

He shifts his weight a bit to sit more comfy on the horseback, softly gripping the bridles as his feet's rest in the bridles.

Shock, pain and sadness fly by in Florian's face from the Polish words before he seems to gather himself and gives them a small smile.

"Good afternoon" the man answers a little clumsily, as if he has not spoken Polish for a while but remembers it by heart. He has a lighter tone in his voice when he switches to Polish instead of German or Swedish as he had before.

He looks a little curious and amazed at the boy on the big horse.

The woman glances at his horse with a slightly worried face, but says nothing. The black stallion is still nervous, but stands still. The boy on its back glances up at the woman.

"Do you work at Aegidienbergers?" the woman asks curiously, stroking the neck of her horse who nods a few times with her head and snoring. The white mare stands completely calm and relaxed, other than her ears swinging towards the boy and the black horse at regular intervals, as if she is listening for something.